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Shakira King views herself as someone who is self-aware. She is a regular user of such social media websites as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She is a member of the Black Lives Matter Philadelphia chapter. And, at the age of 25, King is also a Black millennial.

The most important thing to me, when I think about millennials, is the fact that we are not our parents, she said in a recent interview. I think of the way that we move, the way that we express ourselves, the way that we organize, we are not the same people.

Millennials are characterized as the population of people born between 1980 and the early 2000s. The generation remembers President George W. Bush and Sept. 11th. Its members face economic struggles less familiar to their parents and grandparents such as rising student debt, global warming and the post-recession job market. Social media and portable technology is part of everyday life for millennials, who dominate its usage.

Still, University of Chicago Professor Cathy Cohen noted the phrase millennial generation doesnt fully account for the experiences of Black millennials, who make up 14 percent of the total millennial population. This portion of the group has its own unique experiences as a generation.

Millennials of color and Black Millennials in particular often chart a different path, said Cohen, who has spent the past 13 years as the lead investigator of the Black Youth Project, a national research project that studies millennials like King. The project uses data to explore what Black youth think about their community and their own lives.

Its important to have young people speak on themselves about the issues most important to them, Cohen said.

A Black Youth Project report published in October 2015 found 16.6 percent of Black youth were unemployed compared to 8.5 percent of white youth. In a survey, 41.2 percent of Black youth said they were very or somewhat afraid of gun violence. More than half of Black youth surveyed said either they or someone they knew experienced harassment or violence from the police.

Black millennials are often confronted with systemic issues, not individual issues, Cohen offered.

For King, these systemic issues have contributed to feelings of fatigue and anger. The issues also drove her to civic and political activism.

We are tired, its as simple as that, she said of oppression and discrimination. We have watched generations of our people go through this. Where does it end? When will it end? How can I help it to end?

Cohen said Black millennials are nuanced and knowledgeable about politics in this country, about the challenges Black people face and the opportunities to mobilize collectively.

Social media activism

Social media has played a key role in Black millennials ability to mobilize. Black Lives Matter started as a hashtag on Twitter in 2012, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in 17-year-old Trayvon Martins death. The hashtag has since spread into a worldwide movement.

I think social media heightens the work that we do, King said. It makes us hot on our feet. It doesnt take a week to organize something, we can be where we need to be in a night.

Social media is not only just a tool, but a very effective tool, said Dr. Gooyong Kim, assistant professor at Cheyney University. Kim has experience studying the relationship between social media and collective action.

Black millennials have carved out their own spaces within social media, such as Black Twitter, where they can connect as a community. These spaces are like a digital barbershop, where conversations about pop culture blend with conversations about politics. I think for us, the culture lives on social media, King said.

Through social media, Black millennials and other users can see how Black experiences are universal, according to King. All our mommas are the same, everybodys grandmother is the same, we experience the same thing on holidays, she said. Its a way for us to really bridge these gaps.

As a queer Black woman, social media has also helped King become a visible part of the community.

Its helped us take control over who we are and how we define ourselves, she said. Through Twitter and Facebook, the LGBT community can challenge established stereotypes and have their voices heard.

People say social media makes us less social, but I would argue that Black Twitter has made me more social, King added. Its a beautiful sense of community.

Overall, Cohen described Black millennials as thoughtful, nuanced and knowledgeable about politics. Issues that were once marginalized, such as Black feminism, queer issues and Black nationalism, are now taking center stage. Black millennials are aware of the challenges within the Black community and how those challenges can be addressed through social media.

The importance of this generation can not be underscored, Cohen said.

For the future, King is looking forward to more community engagement and growth as a member of the Black community. Her message is clear, Black millennials do not come to play.

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Who are Black Millennials? - The Philadelphia Tribune

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

In a so-called listening session last week to kick off Black History Month, some African Americans surrounded President Donald Trump at the White House, including former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault and GOP political commentator Paris Dennard.

Peppered with numerous racial missteps and misplaced critiques of the press, Trumps breakfast-meeting remarks included an acknowledgment of Dr. Ben Carson. During the campaign, Id go around with Ben to a lot of different places I wasnt so familiar with, Trump noted. Theyre incredible people.

I assume that Carson took him to urban communities, and African Americans are the incredible people Trump was referencing. It wasnt entirely clear (nor were his comments about Frederick Douglass having done an amazing job). Noteworthy is the presidents admission that he wasnt familiar with the communities he visited. So why does he repeatedly make outrageous statements about black hopelessness and destruction in those places, at times likening them to Afghanistan?

Trumps one-sided generalizations about African Americans simultaneously scare and aggravate me. I want him to stop. I suspect others do as well, which is why 92 percent of us voted for candidates other than him and why so many of us maintain that he is #NotMyPresident. Much of what Trump says advances racist narratives about us and communities in which we live. His assumptions are surely based on stereotypes and incomplete facts.

Carson, a surgeon and previous presidential candidate, is Trumps pick for secretary of housing and urban development. Of course the presidents only black Cabinet nominee has been asked to oversee housing and urban development. During the campaign, then-candidate Trump repeatedly declared that African Americans walking streets in inner cities get shot.

This is not true of all, or even most, of us. Ive lived in inner-city Philadelphia for a decade. Ive never been shot. My work has taken me to South Side Chicago many times in recent years; I wasnt shot during my visits there. Chicago incontestably has a significant problem with gun violence, yet the overwhelming majority of African Americans who live there, in New York City and in other cities havent been shot.

Given that he only references inner cities when speaking about my people, I wonder if Trump even realizes that not all of us live in urban contexts. I have relationships with thousands of black people who reside in small towns, suburbs and big cities across the United States, but I personally know none whove been shot. I seriously doubt that Trump knows many more.

To a mostly white crowd at a campaign rally last August, Trump said of African Americans: You live in your poverty, your schools are no good. You have no jobs. I study racial equity in the United States and am a serious appreciator of facts. Statistics make undeniably clear that opportunity and wealth inequities consistently produce disproportionately negative effects on African Americans. My people are not genetically predisposed to poverty or underperformance. Instead, racist structures, systems and policies often devastate our communities in especially severe ways. I wonder if Trump understands this distinction. And does he know that not all African Americans are poor and out of work? Multiple federal data sources (pdf) show that most black adults have jobs, including those of us who live in big cities.

In addition to perpetuating incomplete facts, one-sided narratives about African Americans are also extremely dangerous. Ive spent my 14-year research career disrupting them. I dont offer alternative facts in my work, but instead highlight important aspects of our lives and conditions that are often overlooked by those who hear only bad things about communities of color.

For instance, a team of researchers from the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education conducted a study on young men of color attending 40 public high schools across New York City. We went to each of these schools, which were on average 94 percent black and Latino. None of us were shot or assaulted. We were there to conduct extensive interviews with students who were academically successful, college bound and college ready.

Trumps mischaracterizations of majority-minority schools would lead most Americans to erroneously conclude that nothing good happens in them, little learning occurs, violence erupts every day and no one goes to college. Thats not what we observed. Instead, we found hundreds of young men at these inner-city school sites who spoke extensively about goodness in their schools: teacher practices, peer support and other factors that helped them succeed. Theyre presently in college; one is at the University of Pennsylvania, the same university that Trump and his children attended.

In the report we published from this project (pdf), I begged the nation to please stop mischaracterizing young men of color as hopeless thugs who care nothing about their education, communities, and futures. I am now making the same plea to Trump. He and Betsy DeVos, the nominee for secretary of education, should visit traditional urban public schools. Perhaps he would stop saying that they are no good.

Trumps repeated comments reinforce deficient, criminalized narratives about African Americans. Trayvon Martin was killed because he seemingly didnt belong in the Sanford, Fla., neighborhood that George Zimmerman was patrolling. No way Trayvon was supposed to be in that nice gated community, because we all live in urban ghettos, the Zimmerman-Trump logic goes.

Through his My Brothers Keeper initiative, President Barack Obama aimed to help our nation see young men of color differently. His successor is undermining this important effort and placing millions of black men and women, including me, in danger of being discriminated against, terrorized by police and murdered for reasons of unfounded suspicion. Trump is making African Americans less, not more, safe. Last summer he posed a provocative question to black voters: What the hell do you have to lose? Answer: our lives.

The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.

Shaun R. Harper is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education. He was also named to The Root 100s list of influential African Americans for 2016. Follow Harper on Twitter.

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Here's Why Trump's Rhetoric Is Dangerous for Black People - The Root

The Nextdoor app is the ultimate way to network with your neighbours. Neighbourhood landgrab

Back in the UK, Nextdoors growth shows little signs of slowing down. After launching just 4 months ago, this week the company will acquire Streetlife, the current UK market leader.

Social networking is all about scale and competing networks make it harder for people to know which one to use. Its why Facebook worked so hard to become the de facto network for university students andexploded in popularity.

After buying Streetlife, Nextdoor will gain 1m users, cementing its position as the leading local network in the UK.

There are plenty of other smaller networks up and down the country, mostly run by volunteers, using existing platforms like Ning or old-fashioned discussion boards.

But nothing else rivals Nextdoors ambitions when it comes to building a business.

Despite taking over $200m of investor cash, the app has yet to make a penny until now.

Just like local newspapers of the past, Nextdoor is building the ultimate platform with a targeted audience.

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Nosey neighbours the next billion dollar social network is on your street - The Memo

This week, the Lego Group launched Lego Life, a social network for kids between the ages of five of 13a concept many parents would find "alarming," according to Michael McNally, Legos senior director of brand relations.

To stop parents from panicking, McNally and Lego PR agency Flashpoint Public Relations made safety messaging about Lego Life a priority. The agency, Legos AOR in the US and Canada, was mandated to create a global PR strategy that was shared with the companys other firms around the world. Lego works with Norton & Co. in the UK, Agence Hopscotch in France, and Klenk & Hoursch in Germany.

Billed as "a safe social network for kids," Lego Life includes a digital experience that allows young Lego builders to connect with a community to express their creativity, share their Lego creations, interact with Lego characters, and inspire one another, according to the company. It launched on Tuesday in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland.

Lego is often asked how it can be relevant in an era when many children want to stare at a phone and consumer digital content for hours, McNally said.

"Yes, that is a reality about how kids engage with their friends and the world around them, but it is not the only thing they want," he explained. "When you offer kids an opportunity that can satisfy their digital needs but reinforce their offline activity, there is a meaningful space for that."

Lego Lifes goal is to offer kids the best of both worlds: allowing them to connect with fellow builders virtually and sending them back to their Lego collections so they can build physicallyand then have more content to share.

Lego surveyed parents prelaunch and found they are embracing digital experiences such as social networks, believing they are a part of modern childhood and kids need to know how to use them. The findings contrasted sharply from parents view just five years ago that children should not be exposed to social networks; rather, they should have "more analog experiences."

"Our research found parents see Lego as a brand being a trusted partner and helping their kids get familiar with the ins and outs of social networking," said McNally. "We wanted to reinforce that we are the right partner for them."

To do that, Lego included a Digital Safety section for parents within the Lego Life app that "helps with different things parents can think about, and what they should talk to their kids about in terms of online safety," he added.

Among the safety points emphasized by the company: Lego Life prevents kids from sharing personal information, images, or anything that could allow users to identify and locate one another. All content and comments on the app are monitored by Lego employees who specialize in moderation to ensure that it is appropriate and child-friendly.

The Brand Finance Global 500 report, published this week, reported that Lego is themost powerful brandin the world. The toy companyscored 92.7 out of 100. Lego was also named theworlds most powerful brand in 2015.

An earned-media-based launch PR was the centerpiece of the launch strategy for Lego Life, with no paid marketing bolstering it.

"We have been relying on the owned and earned channels for getting off-the-ground," said McNally.

Instead of targeting YouTube influencers, which McNally said is the go-to marketing strategy for toy brands, Lego implemented a media relations strategy aimed at tech publications such as The Verge and Engadget to get the word out. He explained that Lego wanted to identify media influencers who would "create a ripple in the water."

"We knew it was important to get the endorsement of tech media, so we gave them a demo of what we were doing and discussed all the things that were put in place to ensure safety," said Christopher Downing, principal and owner of Flashpoint PR. "We also talked to them about the research and insights that informed the name generator or avatar creator."

The Lego community team is now engaging Lego influencers to promote the app.

"We will be looking at social activations now that everything is launched," said McNally. "And will now be engaging people in participating in the app and helping to create content."

This story first appeared in PR Week.

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Why parents didn't freak out when Lego unveiled its social network for kids - CampaignLive

Balefire9 | Dreamstime.comOnce again, legislation that would give American citizens better privacy protections for their emails has passed the House of Representatives, but we're going to have to see what happens in the Senate.

The Email Privacy Act aims to correct a flaw in federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Passed in the relatively early days of home computer use, it established a policy that private electronic communications held by third parties that were more than 180 days old could be accessed by law enforcement and government investigators without the need for a warrant. A subpoena delivered to the communication provider was enough. A law this old obviously preceded the arrival and dominance of private email communications, and tech privacy activists and tech companies have been pushing for reform. The way the system stands now can result in people having their old private communications searched and read by authorities without the citizen's knowledge.

The Email Privacy Act fixes some of these problems, though it doesn't fully resolve the controversy Under the act, officials will need to get actual warrants to access emails and online communications, which provides at least a little more judicial oversight. But the warrants are to the providers, not to the actual people who wrote and sent the communications. It will be up to companies to decide whether to pass along the news of the warrant to customers. Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, says that this is a flaw with the legislation. The original version of the bill required that government provide notice. Without that rule, the third-party provider can resist the warrant if they choose to, but the actual customer probably might not even know.

"If you don't have notice, you really can't effectively [challenge the warrant]," Singh Guliani said. The bill does permit third-party providers to let customers know about the administration of warrants, but also allows for the government to delay this information for 180 days under a handful of exceptionsif the target is a flight risk or may destroy evidence or otherwise compromise the investigation. And while some major tech and communication companies have fought back against orders to pass along data or to keep searches secret, Singh Guliani says we shouldn't have to be "reliant on the business practices of providers that can change over time to make sure people get the full protection of the Fourth Amendment."

Still, the compromise bill is better than the current rules. No representative voted against it last session of Congress, and it passed again yesterday by a voice vote. But while the bill enjoys popular bipartisan support in the House, the last attempt to get it passed hit disaster in the Senate. Senators attempted to meddle with the wording of the bill to weaken it or add other unrelated regulations. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) attempted to add an amendment to expand the surveillance reach of secretive National Security Letters. Sponsoring senators ended up yanking the legislation from consideration.

The Senate sponsors last session were Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). A representative from Sen. Lee's office said that he intends to co-sponsor the Senate version of the bill again this year, but it has not yet been introduced. This could be the first legislative test of whether increased privacy protections can make its way to and through a presidential administration openly hostile to limits on any sort of investigative or law enforcement authority (as we saw earlier today). President Donald Trump is hardly alone and he's not responsible for its previous problems, but it's nevertheless legislation that should not be struggling at all.

And a little bit of self-promotion: I'll be leading a panel discussion on the Fourth Amendment, tech privacy, and Congressional lawmaking in this March's South by Southwest (SXSW) conference. Singh Guliani will be one of our panelists. Check out the details here if you find yourself in Austin on March 10. Efforts like the Email Privacy Act will be part of the discussion.

Read more:
Will Your Old Emails Finally Get Fourth Amendment Protections? - Reason (blog)