Black Networks Matter : The Role of Interracial Contact and Social Media in the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests

Scholars have long recognized that interpersonal networks play a role in mobilizing social movements.

Yet, many questions remain. This Element addresses these questions by theorizing about three dimensions of ties: emotionally strong or weak, movement insider or outsider, and ingroup or cross-cleavage.

The survey data on the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests show that weak and cross-cleavage ties among outsiders enabled the movement to evolve from a small provocation into a massive national mobilization.

In particular, the authors find that Black people mobilized one another through social media and spurred their non-Black friends to protest by sharing their personal encounters with racism.

These results depart from the established literature regarding the civil rights movement that emphasizes strong, movement-internal, and racially homogenous ties.

The networks that mobilize appear to have changed in the social media era.

This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.