No victims here. We are people (just like you).
Posted By Sidney on June 15, 2009
In 1964, American voting rights activist and civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer spoke words into history by saying, “I have been tired for 46 years and my parents were tired before me and their parents were tired; and I have always wanted to do something that would help some of the things going on among Negroes that I didn’t like then and I don’t like now. All my life I’ve been sick and tired. Now I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Hamer’s words embodied her plight and the plight of generations of blacks as they sought to be viewed as human beings who were being denied their inalienable rights rather than victims of legal racism and bigotry. However, for those who were on the outside looking in, listening, and reading about the movement from all over the world, the images in newspapers, magazines, and on television was that of either victim or irritating rebel.
But, it’s a new day and we are experiencing the humanizing affect of social media through the “people created content” streaming from Iranian Reformist protesting the disputed election win by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, despite their government’s attempts to block their efforts. Not only are the first hand accounts compelling, but the emotional pull is inescapable due in part to the volume, breadth, and personal nature of the first-hand accounts of Iranian bloggers (who make up the third largest blogosphere in the world with over 60,000 strong).
(IRAN: A Nation Of Bloggers from ayrakus on Vimeo.)
Social media humanizes the people we would have once called “victims” and compels us to identify with them. No longer can we simply sit in quiet sympathy with subconscious thoughts like “this is sad but they are not us” or “they are victims…not apart of our lives”.
In the hands of community organizers and activists, social media renders the static, above-the-fold headline obsolete by engaging ours senses, calling upon our human nature, and moving our feet, hands, and/or voices to act by blogging, joining the movement, raising funds, or simply spreading the word.
Before the advent of this new media ecology, we could only view the mainstream news footage and commentary for such events as: the “Bloody Sunday” voter rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965; the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre of 1989; the Rwandan genocide of 1994; or more recently the Hurricane Katrina rescue debacle of 2005. Now we can receive the human rights movements of our day streamed and blogged into our worldview – hopefully moving voters who are on the fence to choose change and moving the rest of the world to join forces. How has social media moved you in a compelling way to act?
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