Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives put forth a bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S., unless the platform is sold to an American company. This vote and support for the bill was largely promoted to guarantee United States security. TikTok, while representing just one of the many social media platforms that are in heavy use, is a platform that has allowed marginalized persons to have voice and advertise and market small businesses, and to create start-up niche businesses that are largely successful and profitable. To date, TikTok purports that over 5-million small businesses head to the platform to share their business in a highly transparent and authentic way, (TikTok Community, 2023).

And we knew it would be!

After extensive pressure from the students in my Beyonce class, I committed to immediately reviewing the new Beyonce album and prepping a new lecture for this semester. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to dive face first into the new Beyonce album, Cowboy Carter, Act II. Following closely on the heels of the amazing artistry and great success of Renaissance, on March 29th, Beyonce in all her shape shifting exquisiteness hurled another iconic genre-fluid work that hit her naysayers dead in the face!

Dawn Johnson participated in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Black Feminism Speaker Series, curated by the Digital Sociology Lab. In this event, Dr. Johnson discussed her work on Black feminism in digital spaces and social justice as well as her approaches to pedagogy in the classroom with Digital sociology Lab fellow, Amaya McNeal.