"Hands Up, Don't Shoot" and Growing Power of Protest Memes

Iconic images can now be a group activity--which is just what their creators want.

This past Wednesday, Ikenna Ikeotuonye, the VP of Howard University Student Association, was leading a scheduled meeting for upperclassmen who had volunteered to move incoming freshmen into their dorms. Disturbed by the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old named Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Ikeotuonye felt moved to make a statement. He explained the circumstances of Brown's death to the assembled group, including reports that Brown had been shot with his hands raised in the air, and then, after asking anyone who objected to leave the room, took a photo of the group with their arms in the same "don't shoot" posture.

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