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No one understands the power of Twitter better than April Reign. The former lawyer turned social activist is best known for starting the hashtag #Oscarssowhite in 2015, a movement that ultimately resulted in A-list celebrities skipping the 2016 awards show altogether in protest. Reign has been a vocal presence on social media ever since, using her celebrity — now more than 120,000 followers — to speak up on a range of issues related to women and minorities.
When HBO announced “Confederate,” a new post-Civil War drama depicting a world in which the South won the war, Reign tried to kill the show on Twitter. Her hashtag, #NoConfederate, was trending during HBO’s marquee show “Game of Thrones.”
When women boycotted Twitter after the company temporarily suspended actress Rose McGowan’s account this fall, Reign went in another direction. She started the hashtag #wocaffirmation to encourage women of color to speak up and be part of the conversation.
“Very often, white women are considered the default,” Reign told CNN. “We just need to think beyond what our implicit biases are, we need to think outside of our own bubble, so that we are more inclusive of everyone else.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
