yngblckpwr

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This video is my own content, that I posted to my Instagram story (now archived) on May 31 2020. The video depicts the escalation in violent police “de-escalation” tactics during the Black Lives Matter protest in Montreal. The videos and photos show the evidence of violence at the hands of the police experienced by Sakina Chigoho, a friend, fellow activist, and an ex-member of the Montreal based nonprofit Occupy The Hood. The other videos (sources unknown) are ones that I shared from other users in my network, depicting the destruction of property during and after the protest, being carried out by primarily white people dressed in all black reminiscent of antifas, similarly present at anti-racism protests in the US.

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This young woman reflects on her own experience with racism in Canada, in response to the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, in order to raise awareness. This video is part of an ongoing trend on Youtube, where Black Youtubers discuss instances where their racial identity has made them victims of verbal abuse or violence.

#Youtube

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Niti Mueth is a local Montreal artist, illustrator and activist. Her artwork overtly represents the Black Lives Matter movement, but also emphasizes self-care and intimacy with oneself, with one’s Blackness and in romantic and platonic relationships. She sells prints and illustrations printed onto clothing and tote bags. She exemplifies one way to combat systemic oppression, instead of through protests, through art. 

Source: https://nitimueth.com/shop/

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A video from Ted Youth illustrates the perspective of a young Black woman in her last year of high school. She discusses the importance and meaning #BlackLivesMatter movement as well as how it came to be. 

#Youtube

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This young woman is responding to an article published by the Toronto Star, criticizing its divisive and tone-deaf take on anti-Black racism protests’ erasure of racism against Indigenous people. This TikTok is relevant because it centres the lived experience of a Black woman, in order to condemn the binary understanding racialized people held by the Toronto Star, as well as the Toronto Police’s recent involvement in the death of an Afro-Indigenous woman from Tkaronto named Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

Part 2 Source: 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSqH7jhB/

Part 3 Source: 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSqH4xDf/

#TikTok

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This TikTok video illustrates a Black Lives Matter protest in Tkaronto, and was captured and edited by a young Black woman. The video is an example of anti-racist mobilization and media being shared across the TikTok through the use of a well-known hashtag, in this case #blacklivesmatter. Videos on TikTok are very short, and the platform is known to have a young demographic, so this video could arguably reach a new demographic of youth. Perhaps some youth, that may not otherwise see much footage of on the ground protests captured by young citizen journalists, are being exposed to this type of content. That is, if Tiktok’s algorithm, encoded with racial bias, permits new audiences to come across the video at all.

Source: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSqHuoxV/

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The hashtag #blackouttuesday was allegedly inspired by another hashtag initiated by music executives in the U.S called #unplugthemic. Both of the hashtag campaigns were attempts to create a break from the bombardment of information circulating online about police brutality in order for individuals to reflect personally on the issue. This was accomplished by Instagram users posting an all black photo and using the hashtag on Instagram, so that their followers’ feeds were effectively blacked out. The issue came about when hundreds of thousands of people used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter as well when posting these black boxes, which censored important information for protesters. The backlash against Black Out Tuesday is well documented among youth on Twitter. 

Sources (from top to bottom):

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/us/blackout-tuesday-black-lives-matter-instagram-trnd/index.html

https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1267719607919316997

https://twitter.com/anthoknees/status/1267727095934799872

https://twitter.com/KenidraRWoods_/status/1267725828475027456

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^^ click the title to watch the video

Occupy The Hood is a music-based, “peaceful demonstration aimed at denouncing the systemic racism present in Canada as well as the police brutality that terrorizes citizens from racialized communities; while funding various non-profit organizations.” (Source: https://www.gofundme.com/f/occupy-thehood?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link-tip)

It is organized by a group of women in their 20s in Montreal. 

The video was produced by youth, and uploaded to Instagram through their IGTV, which permits users to upload longer-format videos. It is relevant because it demonstrates youth-driven video content, and that content being disseminated and engaged with online on social media platforms.

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The signs and posters that are made and used at anti-Balck racism protests can also be youth-driven. They are one of the lingering artifacts used for protesting that remains unchanged since before the conception of the internet. Signs like these are used today in the same way there were used during the Civil Rights Movement, for example. Although in these examples, it is unknown if the photographers are youth, the signage in itself was created by youth, and its creation and use of the is a form of participation in the racial justice movement. 

Image sources (from top to bottom):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Azania/comments/4rsrwe/if_you_are_neutral_in_situations_of_injustice_you/

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/g33024721/black-lives-matter-protest-signs-2020/?slide=6

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/large-crowd-turnout-for-third-blm-rally-in-regina-1.5602575

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/ramona-sentinel/news/story/2020-06-

https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/summer-2017/a-district-profile-black-lives-matter-at-school

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/152700243588920936/

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Multiple forms of youth-driven media can be created on one topic, and then be shared on multiple social media platforms. Here is an another example of the same BLM protest that took place in Tkaronto, this time depicted on Twitter. The video is accompanied by a tweet, urging the defunding of the Toronto police. Twitter has been instrumental for the mobilization of Black youth activists condemning racism, as well as in providing information on the ground during protests in real time. The use of Twitter for these or other purposes by Black youth is commonly referred to as Black Twitter. 

Source: https://twitter.com/BLM_TO/status/1273989935549181952

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The video depicts a march and rally held outside the Toronto Police headquarters in Tkaronto held by the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM) on July 18, 2020. The BLM movement is founded by Black womxn to denounce police killings and brutality, as well as other forms of oppression towards Black people. The video underlines the demands of BLM to defund the police, and illustrates the reporting of the event by citizen journalists. Although the logos of mass media news outlets are visible in the video, on the microphones seen recording the protests, this particular video was posted by Anique Jordan, a prominent young Black artist and activist in Tkaronto. Videos posted to social media can be disseminated to audiences more quickly than mass media news sources, they are also less limited by time constraints and stakeholder’s interests. 

Video Source: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBnoBcXpkuT/

Photo Source: https://nowtoronto.com/news/disarm-defund-toronto-police

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This is a series of screenshots taken from the Instagram account @zozospice, who is a young Black woman in Montreal who is active in educating her followers about Black thought and issues through reading. For several weeks, she has shared a different book or essay relating to anti-Black racism. The recommendation is posted to Facebook, and then a screenshot of the Facebook post is shared on her Instagram story, as well as on an Instagram highlight on her profile so that her followers can refer back to it later. This is pertinent because there is a definite lack of Black scholarly content being presented at all levels of eduction, and Black scholars are often at the periphery of the educational system. @zozospice has therefore found her own way of educating herself, as well as engaging with her audience about racism, all while leading by example. A lot of people post about anti-Black racism, but not everyone is actively engaging with their audience by sharing their own process of educating themselves to do so. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18080816878211878/