#illridewithyou

Photograph by Rohan Furnell

I awoke on the morning of Monday the 15th of December 2014 with a sense of buoyancy, a feeling that typically comes with just three more days before the Christmas holidays. Rolling over and wrestling the sleep from my body I began to, without thinking, almost habitually, scroll through my Facebook feed, yet unlike most mornings, in this moment everything changed. Status updates, news reports, links and articles flooded my news feed like a tidal wave of dissemination connecting me to the Sydney siege and the hostages taken at the Martin Place cafe. I couldn’t quite take it in, but I felt the horror, confusion and anguish of what was unfolding. The Lindt Cafe is well known to me and the other dancers in the company, it was only a short distance up from the Opera House. Decorated in marble and gold, it was hard not to conjure images of the scenes taking place inside.

#illridewithyou was a simple gesture that sparked a global phenomenon, a hashtag campaign that advanced above and beyond a divisive rhetoric in the midst of the Sydney siege (ABC News Victoria 2014). Evolving as a reaction against an anti-Muslim backlash, the digital trend reflected a discernable sentiment that aggression and hostility would likely be misdirected towards members of the community (Dumas 2014). Illustrating immaculately the ‘individualised and personalised’ civic participation that has become characteristic of our most recent assimilation into the cultures of digital communication and active citizenship (Loader, Vromen & Xenos 2015, p. 404).

Loader, Vromen and Xenos (2015, p. 402) consider with optimism that the diversity of views and methods of interpretation offered by social media are offering society an engagement in discussion that facilitates deliberation and enables informed civic choices. And in this instance the propagation of active citizenship through digital protest and activism, social media could not be seen as merely a vehicle to project ‘abstract’ thought (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 4). #illridewithyou offered structure to the way in which people came together and acted in support of their broader community, it gave currency to both the figurative and the literal to inspire and ‘choreograph’ social action (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 4).

As Gerbaudo (2012, p. 5) consider, the influence of civic participation through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter can establish an ‘emotional space within which collective action can unfold’. Enabling ‘soft leaders’ to ‘choreograph’ social connections pivotal to the issues in the public and political milieu (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 5).

In the context of active digital citizenship, the #illridewithyou campaign facilitated a socio-political discourse driven by the cooperative impetus of social media. The communication of ‘common symbols’ and beliefs across global digital networks brought together separate individuals to demonstrate ‘unity despite diversity’ (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 14). For me it was an engagement in citizenship that as Bakardjieva (2009, p. 92) highlights ‘unfolded at the level of subjective experience… submerged in the flow of everyday life’.

The #illridewithyou campaign highlighted the potential for digital communities to create public discussion and form the social agenda (Olson 2016, p. 783). Does the sway of digital activists rallying around a hashtag such as ‘ill ride with you’ motivate our communities and political leaders to make a real difference (Olson 2016, p. 773)? 

References:

ABC News Victoria 2014, Sydney Siege: #illridewithyou: Muslim community leaders say the siege had nothing to do with Islam and was the act of a deluded individual, 16 December, viewed 1 January 2017, <http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/media;dn=TSM201412160048;res=TVNEWSB;type=mp4>.

Bakardjieva, M 2009, 'Subactivism: Lifeworld and Politics in the Age of the Internet', Information Society, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 91-104.

Dumas, D 2014, ‘Sydney siege aftermath: #illridewithyou shows the healing power of the hashtag’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 December, viewed 1 January 2017, <http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-siege-aftermath-illridewithyou-shows-the-healing-power-of-the-hashtag-20141217-1294i2.html>.

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the Streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Pluto, London.

Loader, BD, Vromen, A & Xenos, MA 2015, ‘Performing for the young networked citizen? Celebrity politics, social networking and the political engagement of young people’, Media, Culture & Society, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 400-419.

Olson, CC 2016, ‘#BringBackOurGirls: digital communities supporting real-world change and influencing mainstream media agendas’, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 772-787.

#BlackLivesMatter  #MeToo  #IllRideWithYou 

If you are on social media or watch any news broadcasting program, listen to the radio or podcasts, even watched some Netflix Original series – you would have surely come across one or some or all of these activist hashtags (and many, many more) at some point.

The term Social Activism refers to a broad range of activities which are beneficial to society or particular interest groups, with social activists operating in groups to voice, educate, and agitate for change – targeting global crises (Ghobadi, 2018).  

Partaking in social activism online – or online activism, has revolutionised the way in which we fight for social justice through social media’s ability to spread information faster than ever before - a seemingly obvious benefit, but one which has completely shifted the way we receive, conceptualize, and share information (Psych 424 blog, 2018).

The sexual assault awareness campaign #MeToo was founded by Tarana Burke in 2006 through MySpace to help survivors of sexual violence share their experiences.  The Harvey Weinstein scandal took the movement viral as more and more high-profile women came forth to share their experiences of sexual assault.  At her 2018 TED talk, Ms Burke spoke of her vision for MeToo  – “my vision for the MeToo movement is part of a collective vision to see a world free of sexual violence, I believe we can build that world. Full stop”.

#BlackLivesMatter came into existence in July 2013 through a facebook post by Alicia Garza and intended to serve as an affirmation for a community distraught over the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17 year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida (Cobb, 2016). The hashtag has become an archetypal example of modern protests and political engagement on Social Media, with a Pew Research Center analysis of public tweets finding the hashtag being used on average 17,002 times per day as at 1 May 2018 (Anderson et al, 2018).

After the Martin Place Siege in Sydney of December 2014, social media took to the hashtag #illridewithyou in a show of support and solidarity for the Muslim population in a stand against anti-Muslim sentiment across the nation. The hashtag was sparked by a Facebook post by Rachael Jacobs and fully ignited when Twitter user ‘Sir Twitter’ posted.. "If you reg take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire, & don't feel safe alone: I'll ride with you. @ me for schedule,".

There are criticisms of these online campaigns and activists/movements calling it Clicktivism whereby reducing activism to a mere mouse-clicking exercise, yielding numbers with little or no real engagement or commitment to the cause.

I disagree.  Activism and protest by way of social media offer an untethered platform for otherwise isolated and marginalised people and communities to organise events and communicate via a medium accessible to anyone with an email address, internet and connectable device. To have their opinions heard and be part of a change in the world at large.  Social Media is the New Age and Online Activism is following suit.

References

Alexander, R, 2014, “Sydney Cafe: Australians say to Muslims - “I’ll ride with you”, BBC, 15 December, viewed 25 January 2019, <https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-30479306> 

Anderson, M, Toor, S, Rainie, L, & Smith, A, 2018, ‘Activism in the Social Media Age, Pew Research Center, 11 July, viewed 25 January 2019, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/activism-in-the-social-media-age/>

Cobb, J, 2016, ‘The Matter of Black Lives’, The New Yorker, 14 March, viewed 25 January 2019,  <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/14/where-is-black-lives-matter-headed> 

Ghobadi, S, 2018, ‘Going Viral: What Social Media Activists Need to Know’, The Conversation, 17 July, viewed 25 January 2019, <http://theconversation.com/going-viral-what-social-media-activists-need-to-know-96043>

‘#MeToo founder Tarana Burke says the way her movement is framed is at times ‘unrecognisable’, 2018, ABCNews, 30 November, viewed 25 January 2019, <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-30/me-too-founder-says-movement-has-been-misrepresented/10571958> 

‘The Power of Social Media in Modern Activism’, 2018, Psych 424blog, Applied Social Psychology PennState, 16 March, viewed 25 January 2019, <https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2018/03/16/the-power-of-social-media-in-modern-activism/>

‘What is Clicktivism’ 2018?, Technopedia, viewed 25 January 2019, <https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28184/clicktivism>

Images

https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2018/01/top-7-moments-of-hashtag-activism-in-2017/

https://www.popbuzz.com/life/features/black-lives-matter-movement/

Are similar Muslim-run initiatives happening in other cities? Does anyone know?