Groups across the political spectrum use social media as a tool for effecting change. This article analyzes posts on the micro-blogging platform Twitter to compare the online advocacy of the NAACP—one of the oldest and most established racial justice organizations—to Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100)—a newer organization that emerged at the start of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. Using data from an original dataset composed of 4,094 tweets posted from April 2016 to December 2016, I show that the NAACP is exponentially less likely than BYP100 to address issues related to gender and sexuality but significantly more likely to advocate for electoral political strategies like voting. Newer organizations do better at addressing a diverse African American constituency, but can neglect effective yet incremental reform strategies in favor of revolutionary rhetoric and action. This article encourages a consideration of how Black social movement organizations that are ostensibly very different can leverage multiple movement frames in service of a collective goal to combat racial violence and inequality. I conclude by considering organizational constraints that explain the differential rates with which these organizations discuss certain issues and the relative values of radical and mainstream political organizing.
University of California Press