Providing Spaces on College Campuses and through Social Media for Men of Color to Offer Counterstories

Abstract

<p>Counterstorytelling and history can be useful to understand the historical and political context of power, privilege and the oppression of historically marginalized communities in the United States (Zinn, 1994). Similar to counterstorytelling and history, social media has become an important source of news that influences the examination of society and culture, and its interaction of race, law, power and privilege. If one was born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, one might simply accept anything and everything that social media tells us. “Knowing a bit of history—while it would not absolutely prove the government [and media] were lying in a given instance—might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth” (Zinn, 1994, p. 1 4). This truth is very much rooted in the lived experiences of our daily lives.</p>