PUBLICATION: The Philadelphia Tribune Magazine
PUBLICATION DATE: April 2008
One of the most important e-mails to land in Kourtney Addison’s inbox was seconds away from being cyber trash.
As her eyes scrolled down the computer screen, the forwarded message read like a scene from a Jim Crow-era documentary. A tree that only Whites could sit under, nooses hung in a schoolyard, a Black teen facing a 22-year sentence for beating a White classmate.
Immediately, she thought it was a joke. “It just seemed so unreal,” she recalled of the story later known as the Jena Six.
“It was just blatant racism.”
Wearing a white T-shirt with the words “Free The Jena 6″ painted in red block letters, the Temple University sophomore joined more than 700 students in a demonstration in front of City Hall last September.
It was Addison’s first protest.
As she pumped her fist in the air letting her oversized cowry shell bracelet drop to her elbow, the 19-year-old was brought to tears by the passion displayed by her peers and the realization that “Dr. King’s dream had not been fully realized yet.”
The events of last year – the Jena Six protest, the firing of racist disc jockey Don Imus and the campaign for Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia teen sentenced to prison for consensual sex with a White classmate – resulted in a rebirth of political activism among African-Americans, unseen in recent years.
Many have wondered who is behind this surge. The leader of this movement is not on CNN or holding press conferences on the evening news. This revolution will not be televised – but you may find it in your e-mail.
Today’s generation is turning technology into activism and using the Internet as a tool to carry its messages. With social media sites and e-mail blasts, a story about an injustice can be sent to millions in one mouse-click, garnering support en masse.
“The early Civil Rights Movement had the mimeograph and the Black press. Today, we have e-mail, blogs, text messaging, online petitions, instant messaging, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace,” said Chris Rabb, Philadelphia-based Netroots activist.
Netroots (taken from Internet and grassroots) was coined after Internet users ignited the campaign of 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean through mass e-mails and blogs, bringing him national support and millions in fundraising dollars. Netroots uses the Internet as a platform to voice opinions and draw online users to a particular cause.
Though Netroots activism for African Americans is nascent, says Rabb, “it is by no means a fad.” Read the rest of this entry »
heatherb | 
06 11th, 2010| 
