Black Gaza: Transnational Solidarity through Communicative Action

• In Event: 3160 - Collective Behavior

Abstract

During the early rise of Black Lives Matter, common hashtags found in social media included “From #Ferguson to #Palestine,” and more recently, “#Palestine and #BlackLivesMatter.” The paper places the Black struggle in the U.S. and the Palestinian struggle in Colonizied Palestine within the larger social context of the global formation of asymmetric wars. In a neo liberal era, governance and corporations become transnational in their business and governing efforts, but that implies that those affected by these neo-liberal policies, and its manifestations in the growth of militarized policemen tend to identify with one another and combine their efforts for resistance. This paper utilizes multimodal critical discourse analysis and text-mining to examine transnational solidarity efforts between Occupied Palestine and Black communities in the U.S. Through an exploration of tweets, Facebook posts, campaigns, news, and various forms of art, the paper illustrate the affective intelligence in the political communication (communicative power) between the two groups, and draws on connections between their struggles. It does not compare between the two but shows the connections that were made and how they have the potential for transnational solidarity in the struggle against the oppressed.

Authors

• Martel A. Pipkins

• Laura Khoury, University of Wisconsin-Parkside