The 'If They Gunned Me Down' meme emerged as a powerful social media hashtag campaign in August 2014 following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The movement was sparked by the media's choice to use a photograph of Brown that many felt portrayed him in a negative, stereotypical light instead of more 'respectable' photos of him as a student. This prompted Black Twitter users to share side-by-side images of themselves—typically one in professional or graduation attire and another in casual or street clothing—posing the haunting question of which image the media would choose to define their life if they were killed. It remains one of the most significant examples of digital activism, highlighting systemic biases in news reporting and the criminalization of Black youth through visual narrative.