From Silence to Propagation: Understanding the Relationship between “Stop Snitchin” and “YOLO”

Abstract

Beginning in the early twenty-first century, “Stop Snitchin”—a technique of not speaking to police—was at the forefront of urban hip-hop culture. With the exponential growth of social media, however, the idiom switched to “YOLO”—You Only Live Once. This phrase has glamorized American values of individualism and exceptionalism, thus contradicting “Stop Snitchin,” as people use social media as a platform to display their exploits and apply “YOLO” to dismiss criminal and deviant behavior. This article examines the intersections of social media, crime, and deviance as well as the influence of the prison industrial complex on social promotion of crime and deviant behavior. Using cultural criminology, this article seeks to identify how power is achieved through different forms of impression management, moving from silence to broadcasting in three ways: (1) chance, (2) announced, and (3) rehearsed performances.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Professor Juan Battle, Professor Lynn Chancer, Professor David C. Brotherton, and Professor Keesha Middlemass for their insight, comments, and overall dedication to this article. In addition, I thank my fellow graduate students and friends who assisted in framing and editing this article.

Notes

¹ Black Star Video (http://www.blackstarvideo.com/products/streetdocumentaries.html), name given to a set of documentaries made about gangsters and hustlers in urban American cities that typically chronicle their rise, fortune, and demise through interviews with their family members, associates, friends, rappers, and sometimes law enforcement. Most films are set to a background theme of popular hip-hop music.

² A video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media, and e-mail.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Calvin John Smiley

CALVIN JOHN SMILEY is an Assistant Professor in the Justice Studies Department at Montclair State University. His research focuses on citizenship, incarceration, and reentry, particularly exploring the concept of “civil death” and alternatives to incarceration.