Omar Wasow brings his experience in social media to bear on his research on the civil rights movement of the 1960s in a conversation with The New York Times' On Tech column, highlighting "how the two have melded in the current demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality."

Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics and CSDP faculty associate, is one of the founders of the social media site BlackPlanet(link is external), an early place for Black expression online.

The video of George Floyd taken by Darnella Frazier is an echo of the bearing witness of the beating of Rodney King, and before that the images of Bloody Sunday in Selma [in 1965]. Part of what social media does is allow us to see a reality that has been entirely visible to some people and invisible to others. As those injustices become visible, meaningful change follows.