Former Columbus Dispatch journalist and current American University professor, Sherri Williams' new book is titled Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television.
In the book, Williams explores how Black audiences, using Twitter as a cultural megaphone, led a representation revolution—reshaping how we watch, critique and even produce TV.
Williams will be one of the featured voices at the Columbus Book Festival on July 12 and 13 at Columbus Metropolitan Library's main branch, located at 96 S. Grant Ave.
You can find more information, including a full author schedule, at the festival's website.
Matthew Rand: What got you interested in this relationship between black Twitter and the TV industry?
Sherri Williams: Honestly, when I left the Columbus Dispatch, I went to the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, and I wanted to do my dissertation on how immigrant women use the media to learn English. But while I was doing that, I would see that whenever shows starring mostly Black women would come on television, they would become not only trending topics, but sometimes they would take over all of the trending topics on Twitter. And I saw that there was something to it. And I kept making a note of it and it ended up becoming my PhD dissertation. And now it's a book.
Matthew Rand: You take a long view in this book, going back to the early days of cinema and its often deeply problematic depictions of Black Americans. How has traditional media historically treated Black viewers and how did Black Twitter begin to shift that dynamic?
Sherri Williams: Well, honestly, one of the things that I talk about in the book is that since people of African descent arrived in this country, I truly believe that we have been engaged in image warfare. And image warfare, as most people know, is basically when two parties are at war and one party is using images, visuals and stories to get an advantage over the other. And I really do feel that that is how our images have been portrayed since we've been here. They've been distorted. They've been maligned. We have really been shown as less than human, as subhuman.
Our cultures have been portrayed as subcultures...and so, throughout the ages, we have found different ways to really refute some of these images and some of the distortions. Whether it was the NAACP trying to get “The Birth of a Nation” out of theaters in 1915, because we know that film was notoriously racist, or whether it was people protesting “Fort Apache, The Bronx,” a film which really showed Black and Puerto Rican people as criminals. Today, we have mobile technology and social media that we can use as the latest arsenal against image warfare against us to speak back directly to Hollywood and to say that we demand our humanity be shown more and not have a constant reliance on these stereotypes.
Matthew Rand: It's been almost three years since Elon Musk famously bought Twitter and eventually rebranded it as X. How has the platform changed since then? And importantly, how are Black audiences engaging with it today?
Sherri Williams: The platform has changed tremendously. People don't use Twitter in the same way that they used to. A lot of people have fled the platform. We know that directly after Elon Musk took over, the use of the N-word and other racial slurs skyrocketed by more than 300%. We know there have never really been a lot of spaces, online spaces, that have been safe for queer people, but GLAAD designated Twitter, now X, as the most unsafe social media platform for queer people...so, it is not the place that it used to be and it doesn't have the same influence that it used to have. But I definitely believe that the kind of digital activism and a lot of the momentum that was started then is still happening, but it's just not in a concentrated place on one platform where it used to be.
Matthew Rand: I do want to talk about the Columbus Book Festival, where you'll be taking part in not one, but two panels. What can folks expect?
Sherri Williams: People can expect for some really exciting conversations about not only books, but also pop culture. I am going to be on one panel with Bruce Vilanch—who I have admired for a long time, a long-time comedy writer—a panel about pop culture, Taylor Swift and comedy. I'm also going to be on another panel about the power of Black activism. And that's basically what this is, too. There's a lot of digital activism, and a lot of defense against image warfare when it comes to protecting our images. I'm really looking forward to coming back to Columbus. It's a city where I grew a lot as a woman and also as a writer...and it's a city that really still means a lot to me even though I don't live there anymore.
