#OscarsSoWhite
In January, when the nominees for the Academy Awards were announced and it became clear there would be no diversity this year, despite the fact that African-Americans and other people of color were prominently featured in a number of celebrated films and TV shows, April Reign, whose Twitter handle is @ReignOfApril, launched the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. “When I did #OscarsSoWhite at the beginning of the year, it led to lots of articles about Black Twitter, some about me, but most of them about the issue itself, which was the point: it wasn’t about me,” she told The Daily Beast. The hashtag became so popular that it was used by comedians like Jimmy Fallon.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody
Over the course of just a few weeks this July, at least five Black women, including Sandra Bland, died while in police custody under what many in the Black community have come to believe are suspicious circumstances. This hashtag not only served to raise awareness about their deaths, but also publicly recorded people’s fears of suffering the same fate if arrested.
