Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
Given the mainstream media bias and disinformation we have seen levied against Democrats; POTUS Biden and VP Kamala Harris in particular, it has been clear that one of the major groups of people who have been pushing back against the lies, fabrications, bots and trolls, have been online social media creators and influencers, many of whom are Black, who have followings on platforms like Twitter (now X), TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Initially, the group we have come to know as “KHive” was doing much of the heavy lifting, but they have been joined by many others.
For first time in our political history, the Democratic Party has opened its convention to facilitating social media content creators announcing:
As Americans continue to consume information and content in new and changing ways, the convention team is committed to offering a dynamic, inclusive experience that will reach Americans within and beyond the United Center.
Content creators can apply to receive media credentials that will provide access to key spaces across the United Center throughout the four days of the convention.
Similar to traditional media, the DNCC will provide credentialed creators with logistical assistance tailored to their needs, allowing them to cover the convention, connect with surrogates and VIPs, and share the convention experience with their audiences in a way that suits their media consumption and sharing styles. The DNCC will also provide access to convention video clips and content to creators and traditional media alike who will cover the event remotely
Democratic National Convention to Credential 200 Content Creators in Chicago
CHICAGO – Today, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) announced that it will credential more than 200 content creators to cover the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago as part of its efforts to reach more Americans than ever before. The convention will provide hundreds more with remote access to downloadable content and resources to share convention experiences with their viewers. Creators are already sharing their excitement with their audiences in a new video that spotlights some who will be covering the convention from inside and outside the hall.
Ebony Magazine has covered a handful of them — highlighting Shermann Dilla Thomas, Elizabeth Booker Houston, Malynda Hale, Kenneth Walden (known to many of us as Kenny @2RawTooReal) Quentin R. Jiles, Dr. Zackory Kirk, and Brian Baez.
Elizabeth Paige Richardson wrote for Ebony:
7 Black Content Creators to Watch At the DNC This Week
The creators are part of the Democrats’ plan to reach Gen Z adults, who are estimated to add nearly 9 million more voters in their age bracket since the 2020 election. Online influencers—content creators who have gained a large, loyal and trusting audience—will connect with party surrogates and discussion panels. Party organizers hope that giving the influencers the space and opportunity to document their experiences with their followers will encourage them to cast a blue ballot in November.
The influencers selected to attend represent a wide variety of today’s most popular platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, X and TikTok. With over 60% of Gen Z adults in the United States primarily using TikTok to search for news and information, online platforms now have equal political power to traditional TV and news publications.
See these tweets:
Here’s Quentin R. Jiles:
One of my favorite follows is Qondani “Qondi” Ntini, pictured up top:
I’ve been watching mainstream media coverage with one eye, while seeing what wasn’t being covered by them — like this clip of the Congressional Black Caucus at the DNC, posted by Terry Lee Watkins Jr:
Full coverage was available on Roland Martin’s YouTube channel:
Thanks for reading. Which content creators are you following?
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis was installed Friday, at the very spot where a contentious monument to the confederacy stood for more than 110 years in the town square before it was dismantled in 2020.
Work crews gently rested the 12-foot-tall (3.7-meter-tall) statue into place as the internationally acclaimed sculptor, Basil Watson, looked on carefully.
“It’s exciting to see it going up and exciting for the city because of what he represents and what it’s replacing,” Watson said, as he assisted with the install process.
Lewis was known for his role at the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement and urged others to get in “good trouble” for a cause he saw as vital and necessary. In DeKalb County where the Confederate monument stood for more than a century, protesters have invoked “good trouble” in calling for the swift removal of the obelisk.
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Even before she lost the 2016 election to Trump, Hillary Clinton couldn’t win. Her femaleness—even when it was used as a rallying cry for women tired of being a majority that had never been awarded the job as leader of the country—infused her every event, every message. Her effort to own the sexist tropes was almost painfully awkward: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” Clinton told reporters in New Hampshire in November 2007, insisting she was ready for a hot fight for the 2008 nomination. “And I’m very comfortable in the kitchen.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, trying to accomplish what Clinton could not, has not been spared the sexist gauntlet every female candidate must run. But the attacks are just not landing in the same way they did with Clinton. Embracing or just ignoring the gender-based commentary, Harris has redefined what it means to be a female candidate for high office in the United States.
She lambastes Trump without being labeled “shrill.” She wears pantsuits, but no one mentions her clothes, let alone reads some hidden meaning into them. She calls out hecklers but sounds less like a scolding schoolmarm and more like a mother telling a teenager: You can do better than this. Her laugh—ineffectively ridiculed by the GOP—is a selling point for a candidate who says she wants to bring back joy. Female candidates have long had to explain their family situations: If they had children, voters wondered who’d be taking care of them while their mother was in elected office; those without were asked why they didn’t have any (or are dismissed as angry, cat-obsessed subcitizens). “Momala,” with her two stepchildren, unapologetically represents a common American family dynamic.
The Clinton campaign–era days of painting women in unflattering caricatures is not over; witness the descriptions of Senator Elizabeth Warren as hectoring and lecturing, Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, told me. But Harris “is pulling something off here that feels quite different,” she said.
Part of it is the times; part of it is an electorate more used to female leaders, and much of it is the candidate herself. Harris has managed to assert her authority on the trail without appearing too aggressive (also an easier balance to achieve this year given her opponent’s bombastic personality).
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She survived the attack in September 2022, and her swift recovery – which she credits to divine intervention – surprised health workers. But although the mother of three has regained her speech and mobility, both eyes were ruptured, leaving her completely blind.
Now an aspiring broadcaster, she is determined to stay resilient while she learns braille and finishes a degree she had started before the shooting. But Rodriguez says the incident has been tough on her family, and she yearns for the opportunity to migrate.
Rodriguez is one of thousands who have been caught in a recent wave of violent crime across the Caribbean, with statisticians describing the region as one of the most violent in the Americas.
At the extreme end of the scale of this trend, which has been branded by leaders “an alarming epidemic”, is a rampant gang war that has plunged Haiti into bloody anarchy. Armed factions have controlled most of the country’s capital since the former president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in July 2021, and about 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first quarter of 2024.
The first detachment of an international taskforce to confront the gangs arrived in Port-au-Prince in June, but so far has had little impact on the violence.
But the effects of the rising crime rates are felt right across the region. T&T has seen “bloody weekends” of murders, drug busts and robberies. Last week, Jamaica declared a 14-day state of emergency in the southern Clarendon parish and announced plans to tighten firearms legislation after gunmen fired indiscriminately on people at a birthday party, killing eight, including a boy, aged seven.
When 21 Caribbean leaders met at their recent Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit, the crimewave dominated their conversations, Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, told reporters. In a joint statement, the countries expressed deep concerns about “levels of crime and violence in the region, fuelled in part by firearms and ammunition trafficking, transnational criminal networks, and a deterioration of social structures”.
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The mother of a teenage girl recently handcuffed and threatened with jail by a Detroit judge frustrated with her sleeping and showing him "attitude" explained why her daughter was likely tired this week.
Latoreya Till told the Free Press in a phone interview Thursday that her family currently does not have a permanent place to stay. And after what happened in the courtroom of 36th District Judge Kenneth King, 15-year-old Eva Goodman is afraid.
"My daughter is hurt. She is feeling scared. She didn't want to go to work. She feels like as if her peers went against her. She was real nervous and intimidated," Till said.
"We have to bounce around currently because we don't have a permanent address. And so, that particular night, we got in kind of late. And usually, when she goes to work, she's up and planting trees or being active."
Goodman works with The Greening Project, a nonprofit that aims to improve the "green infrastructure" of the city. (A statement from the nonprofit Wednesday incorrectly identified Goodman as 16.) On Tuesday, Goodman and peers with the project attended King's courtroom to both watch proceedings and learn from the judge.
While speaking to the teens, King noticed Goodman sleeping. Video of King's courtroom showed he yelled at her to wake up, but minutes later saw her sleeping again. At that point he ordered her taken into custody.
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WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
