Re #3 in the last post (Trayvon Martin)
I noticed elsejournal someone's comment that this wasn't really on most people's radar*, and realized that my concept of "on the radar" may be quite skewed. I think I first heard of the Trayvon Martin shooting on NPR one morning last week, but I really couldn't say. ( pretty sure it was before this ONTD) There's been a whole lot of posts in the last several days on ontd_political, especially now that the girlfriend and 911 callers have come forward, and also now that the 911 tapes have been released and the Justice Department has agreed to do their own investigation**. Over the past several nights the various WAMU discussion shows have included discussion about what is known so far, and the difficulties that Florida's Stand Your Ground law create.
That all said, Trayvon Martin was killed over 3 weeks ago, on February 26. It took a fair while for News To Be All Over, and that started with a push from the family, to friends, to community leaders, all with a likely somewhat delayed start due to them being in Miami and this all happening near Orlando, plus time for Sanford police to be apparently not moving forward.
Re why did it take so long to be All Over? Social media bubbles are strange things. Kony2012's campaign, to which the current discussion has been compared (4th paragraph) started with getting a bunch of the most highly social-media-connected celebrities to post links. That is an astonishingly huge head start. If you're not starting there, you're starting with a few people and their contacts and it will take a lot more time to grow. [Edit: Article about celebrity tweets giving a boost to the petition.]
I'm not quite sure what I'm saying, here. Mostly, I'm curious as to when people first heard about Trayvon Martin, and I guess I'm also musing about how one grows awareness, whether by social media or by political action.
Semirelatedly, I'd not imagined there was much to say other than OMG This Is Very Wrong once one did know, but in googling to try to figure out whether it was Jackson or Sharpton who had gotten involved*** I found some conservative blogs. GAAA. And this isn't even the worst of em.
*more specifically, not on white people's radar.
** Orlando Sentinel, mentioning suggestions of 'citizens arrest.' I think that was before DOJ agreed to get involved.
*** Misremembered. Sharpton is expected Thursday. (Link goes to PBS Newshour transcript discussing SYG, Sanford PD, and other parts of the case.)
That all said, Trayvon Martin was killed over 3 weeks ago, on February 26. It took a fair while for News To Be All Over, and that started with a push from the family, to friends, to community leaders, all with a likely somewhat delayed start due to them being in Miami and this all happening near Orlando, plus time for Sanford police to be apparently not moving forward.
Re why did it take so long to be All Over? Social media bubbles are strange things. Kony2012's campaign, to which the current discussion has been compared (4th paragraph) started with getting a bunch of the most highly social-media-connected celebrities to post links. That is an astonishingly huge head start. If you're not starting there, you're starting with a few people and their contacts and it will take a lot more time to grow. [Edit: Article about celebrity tweets giving a boost to the petition.]
I'm not quite sure what I'm saying, here. Mostly, I'm curious as to when people first heard about Trayvon Martin, and I guess I'm also musing about how one grows awareness, whether by social media or by political action.
Semirelatedly, I'd not imagined there was much to say other than OMG This Is Very Wrong once one did know, but in googling to try to figure out whether it was Jackson or Sharpton who had gotten involved*** I found some conservative blogs. GAAA. And this isn't even the worst of em.
*more specifically, not on white people's radar.
** Orlando Sentinel, mentioning suggestions of 'citizens arrest.' I think that was before DOJ agreed to get involved.
*** Misremembered. Sharpton is expected Thursday. (Link goes to PBS Newshour transcript discussing SYG, Sanford PD, and other parts of the case.)