African American and Latino Social Media Engagement in Causes

There are 1.9 million African-American-owned businesses in the U.S. but only 10,026 produce $1 million each year in income, according to Lorraine C. Miller, a member of the NAACP national board of directors and former clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“These are potential jobs and we need to do a much better job in recognizing that,” Miller said as she addressed the NAACP’s national leadership summit over the Memorial Day weekend in Hollywood.

A town hall session explored the job market and the political responsibilities of African-Americans in light of the growing Hispanic population.

Part of the reason there are so many small black businesses is the economic contraction the country is experiencing, said Charles Ellison, politics editor of The Loop 21.

“There is a very high unemployment rate… more than 30 percent for African- Americans. And a lot of us are having trouble securing jobs and have become entrepreneurs. And that speaks to our heritage, our tradition of survival,” Ellison said.

The topic of the May 28 event was “Town Hall Meeting 2012: What’s the Next Step?” Miller and Ellison were among the panelists for the event which formed part of the four-day NAACP Annual Leadership 500 Summit, now in its seventh year, which was held at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa.

Also on the panel were Hilary O. Shelton, senior vice president for advocacy and policy and director of the NAACP's Washington Bureau and the Rev. Leah Daughtry, Democratic strategist and pastor of The House of the Lord Church in Washington, DC.

For instance, the study reveals that there are significant differences in how the ethnicities perceive social media. African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely to believe that they can help get the word out about a social issue or cause through online social networks (58% and 51%, respectively, vs. 34% of Caucasians). They also subscribe more readily to the belief that social networking sites like Facebook make it easier to support causes today, and that these sites help increase visibility for causes.

Traditional media, however, remains the primary way in which Americans learn about causes, but social media is getting stronger and stronger. Americans are still preferring offline methods to support causes, including donations, but joining a cause group on Facebook, posting a logo to a social profile, and contributing to blogs seem to gain popularity. Among these, the Facebook causes, which require nothing more than the push of a “join” button, are the most popular.

African-American and Hispanic users of social media are significantly more likely to learn about and become involved in social issues, according to a Georgetown study.

Conducted in 2010, the study examined the roles of a variety of activities in fostering engagement with social issues among adults.

The study found that African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely than Caucasians to be involved in several key issues, including diabetes, domestic violence, bullying, childhood obesity, Haiti relief and HIV/AIDS.