Why I did not post a black screen today in support of Black Lives Matter

If you use Instagram and you are anywhere near as addicted to it as I am, you will have noticed today [Tuesday 2nd June] that your feed was flooded with black squares, usually accompanied by the caption #BlackLivesMatter or #BlackoutTuesday. You may have chosen to post one yourself in support of the resurgence of the movement, following the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others in all too recent times.

What I’ve noticed about the Black Lives Matter movement this time is that greater emphasis has been placed on the duty we all have to speak up against racism, that it is not enough to just be ‘not racist’ but that the only way reform will be possible is if we are emphatically ‘anti-racist’. Don’t get me wrong — this is a good thing. There have been too many cases of police brutality in the US (although the UK is not innocent by far, incidents here never seem to gather as much media attention — but that’s systemic racism for you) which have provoked an outburst of responses on social media that have simply fizzled out after a couple of weeks as people’s lives return to ‘normal’. This time round, it feels as though people are angrier, that they will not stand for this inequality much longer. However, this new wave of activism has also brought out the worst in some people.

A few days ago, a new trend was circulating on social media (particularly on Instagram stories), not dissimilar to that of the ‘post your favourite holiday photo and nominate 5 friends to do the same’ variety. But this time it was: ‘repost if you think black lives matter and tag 10 friends’. As soon as I saw this, I felt sickened and couldn’t understand exactly why; I took to Twitter to vent my frustrations.

Not long after I posted this tweet, I learnt a new term (thanks, internet!) — ‘performative activism’. This refers to taking to social media to post about your supposed involvement in activism (in this case, your support for the Black Lives Matter movement) without doing anything of substance (that is to say, donating to a charity or actually taking the time to learn about institutionalised racism). In all fairness, posting on social media is largely performative anyway. But there is undeniably a difference between sharing a petition on your Twitter feed and simply reposting a black photo in which you were tagged.

Over the weekend, the people took to Twitter (and Instagram) to voice their dismay about the trivialisation of people’s lives by turning BLM into an ‘Instagram challenge’, and the stories I had seen or been tagged in were quickly deleted in shame. But today feels like a frustrating repeat of the not-so-distant past. Not only is posting a black square doing the bare minimum in support of the BLM movement, but by using the caption #BlackLivesMatter with their posts, Instagram users have flooded the internet with black screens that have actually camouflaged useful posts that have been used to share information about protests taking place. In addition to this, many accounts that I had assumed to be ‘dormant’ over the past couple of days given the lack of information/general signs of solidarity being shared have sprung into action, using fist emojis with different races to stress their courageous unity with the black community.

If this does sound like a raging, uncontrollable rant, I am genuinely sorry. I do realise that solidarity is needed now more than ever and I would like to point out that any form of support is appreciated, even though I could do without some. Something that I have taken away from today is that many people have good intentions, although not always the right idea about how to express them. So, I’d like to end with the words of MLK, which are eternally relevant but especially so in these times:

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

And to lighten the mood (if only marginally), a Fresh Prince reference (20 years on and we still haven’t worked things out?).

If you actually read this and got this far, THANK YOU! Now go and email the Governor of Minnesota: https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/george-floyd-police-violence-usa/