Dear newly elected officials – don’t underestimate the power of a hashtag.
It can garner you thousands of supporters in mere seconds.
Just ask Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was recently silenced on the Senate floor while reading aloud a 1986 Coretta Scott King opposition letter to Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions. She took quickly to social media to explain her perceived injustice, and soon thereafter, #LetLizSpeak was born.
Senator Warren may have started it off, but #LetLizSpeak gave faces to women who could emphasize with struggle, or being told “no.” And they all shared 140-character snippets of their own stories.
“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” – #whitemaleprivilege #letlizspeak #ShePersisted
— Rai (@sun_raii) February 9, 2017
Nasty Women #persistandresist #ShePersisted #letlizspeak #ImWithHer #resisttheeasyD pic.twitter.com/CANmuExKXq
— Rachel Hightower (@_LadyHightower) February 9, 2017
You know they’re all racist, they wouldn’t even let her read Coretta King’s letter. That tells&shows a lot. #letlizspeak smh🤦🏽♀️sad!
— KP (@BeautyKay_Slay) February 9, 2017
The best way to communicate is through face-to-face interaction (Daft, R. & Lengel, R.). Though Senator Warren can’t personally meet with every woman who feels suppressed in some way, the hashtag revolution that spread out around her provided just that. Joined together with a single character and eleven letters, women were able to interact icon-to-icon and connect with one another – and Warren’s message – on a huge scale.
It may not be face-to-face, but it’s certainly quicker. And often, a speedy hashtag trend seems to get people on the bandwagon.
But it works the other way too – just ask our president, who’s had the misfortune of being the butt of many a hashtag joke. He recently tweeted the phrase “Easy D,” and Twitter has since been having a ball.
Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
It has since become a “revolution” of sorts where users take the opportunity to cast POTUS in a light almost as silly as the phrase itself.