Social Activism on Instagram
Neha, Ana, and Nora
Wellesley College
CS 115 Spring 2020
There are social activism organizations at every level: international, national, regional, local. There are also coalitions and individual groups.
You can find on Instagram or on other social media platforms what social activism events are happening near you!
Racial Justice Movements on Instagram
On this page you can find more information on racial justice movements on Instagram. We aimed to highlight a few pages that align with value mechanisms that our survey respondents found important, but we encourage you to do more research and find movements that really resonate with you.
How do racial justice movements utilize Instagram?
Just like other activist movements, racial justice movements use instagram to gain, mobilize, and organize support, spread their message across digital spaces, and advocate for their cause in a digital setting. In our survey, many respondents indicated valuing digital activism when the content engaged with tangible offline action items, so we tried to highlight movements that embodied this quality.
Instagram Accounts You Should Check Out
These are just a few! We tried to highlight intersectional racial justice oriented movements and collectives as social justice issues are inherently intersectional in nature.
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@decolonizethisplace
With over 100k followers, this page was one that our survey respondents highlighted often. Decolonize this place is an active movement that centers issues of Indigenous struggle, Black liberation, Palestinian rights, gentrification, and patriarchy, among others. They are based out of New York, and focus particularly on decolonizing narratives, as their name suggests. Through surveying their page, we noted their effort to stay actively engaged with their digital community through hosting webinars and online workshops. Source: @decolonizethisplace on Instagram
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@equalitylabs
Equality Labs is an Ambedkarite, progressive, power-building community organization that aims to engage in community-oriented social justice politics to combat issues of caste, Islamophobia, white supremecy, and xenophobia. During COVID-19, they have been organizing online events and have recently released community COVID-19 guides in 12 major South Asian languages. Source: Equality Labs
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@blklivesmatter
This is the official page of the Black Lives Matter movement. The account highlights prominant Black figures and amplifies the voices of activists fighting for Black liberation. Right now, they are circulating a crisis response petition. This is a unique function of digital spaces-- it is relatively easy to organize voices around an issue. Source: @blklivesmatter on Instagram
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@blackmamasmatter
The Black Mamas Matter Alliance is a Black women-led alliance collective that advocates for equitable maternal care, rights, and justice for Black women. The time of COVID-19 has highlighted how structural, medical racism impacts Black and Brown communities in disproportionality devasting ways, especially Black women. Source: Black Mamas Matter Alliance
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@aafc.nyc
The Asian American Feminist Collective is an intersectional, feminist collective which engages in community grounded politics with the goal of advocating for and building power within East, Southeast, and South Asian, Pacific Islander, multi-ethnic and diasporic Asian identities. Source: Asian American Feminist Collective
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@latinarebels
Latina Rebels is a page started by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez in 2013, while she attended an elite PWI. Through centering the narratives of 5 Latina women, this page aims to unveil the complexities of Latina identity. Source: @latinarebels on Instagram
Source: @aafc.nyc on Instagram
Important Features of these Accounts & Movements
- Again, we aimed to highlight accounts that engage in community based, intersectional racial justice work.
- We also chose to seek accounts that often engaged with their digital communities in tangible ways, such as organizing online events, giving their audience ways to connect online discourse with offline action items, and spreading petitions and fundraisers.
- That being said, we want to reinforce that this is just a selection of meaningful accounts. There are so many more pages, and we hope this inspires you to find some that speak to what you're passionate about.