If you’ve scrolled through your Instagram or Twitter feed in the last 24 hours, you would have noticed it looked a little different than normal. Taking to the platform, many posted a single black square alongside the caption #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackOutTuesday.
And while the silent post was a means of showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, many have called out the trend for being “performative” and drowning out real resources and information.
Originally, an idea sparked by the music industry to “pause the show”, no posts were meant to go out on social media. Others took it as a cause to pause posting anything unrelated to the Black Lives Matter rather than have voices silenced.
While the squares were posted with good intention, using the #BlackLivesMatter prevents crucial and informative information from being shown, effectively drowning out the work of activists and helpful resources. Many have also pointed out it clogs out photos of the videos and protests.
Others pointed out that now was not the time to drown out the important voices in the movement, and instead share helpful information and resources and ways to become a better ally.
If you posted a black square, this is what you need to know:
Make sure not to use the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter or #BLM. Instead, you can use the hashtag #BlackOutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused. If you already posted with the BLM hashtag, you should remove your post since it’s already cached.
What more we can do to keep the momentum going.
Educate yourself.
While yes, taking to Instagram to hashtag and repost is going to help raise awareness – we must continue to amplify our voices – especially those of us born with white privilege – and educate those around us.
A list of places you can visit to do so:
Take Harvard’s implicit bias test to learn your level of conscious and unconscious bias on things like light versus dark skin tone preference and many other categories including race, sexual orientation, religion, age, and weight.
Listen to Chrisy Ford’s viral video on racism
Read books by black and Indigenous authors (a list here).
Sign this Change.org petition.
A petition, which has 9 million signatures and growing by the second, calls on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and District Attorney Mike Freeman to arrest and charge all officers involved in Floyd’s death for police malpractice.
Sign here.
Read these powerful pieces to further your knowledge.
White people, here’s how to be a better ally and proactively anti-racist
Black People Need Stronger White Allies — Here’s How You Can Be One
BECOME A BETTER ALLY TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY
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