For a while I thought posting anything here regarding Black Lives Matter beyond spreading resources (see bottom of post for links) would be distasteful, as this is normally a humor blog. There’s nothing funny about George, Ahmaud, Breonna, and so many other innocent black lives lost to senseless violence. What has been absolutely absurd, though, is observing the performative activism in response to Black Lives Matter, especially the social media trends churning out bad take after bad take of the movement.
By now, you must have heard someone comparing life to a Black Mirror episode. Obviously that’s an exaggeration. One is grossly unrealistic, filled with unlikable characters, and builds to a deeply unsatisfying conclusion. The other is a Black Mirror episode.
… Here we go.
7 Absurd Social Media Phenomena Re: Black Lives Matter
1. The “Tag 10 Friends” Chain
Along those lines, who could forget when Kendall shot that ill-conceived Pepsi ad where she offered a police officer a can at a protest? Someone recreated that, and I’m still not over it.
2. The “I’m not black, but I see you” copy-pasted chain statuses and their brethren.
I understand that a lot of these posts are well-intentioned and that people with platforms can feel like they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. They face pressure to speak up yet fear being cancelled for saying something tone-deaf. That said, I also see why reading these posts can be immensely frustrating, especially when a statement isn’t accompanied by action. Activists have been trying to be seen voicing concerns regarding systemic police violence against black people years before it was trendy.
3. Black squares for #BlackOutTuesday
Tuesday, people posted black squares to their Instagram feeds in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter. Again, many were well-intentioned but some certainly were performative. Ironically, these squares flooded the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and masked informative communications from protest organizers.
4. Corporations “standing by” black people.
5. Instagram influencers keeping calm and carrying on.
On a scale of least to most hated types of people, Instagram influencers rank at people who’ll call you out in a large group with “wow, you’re so quiet!” (I will say, though, considering I was briefly a nano-influencer for an Italian café on campus, my own morality is quite easily bought. Specifically, it’s worth about 24 free bowls of pasta.)
6. Asian-Americans exposing anti-black racism endemic to the community
Apparently, one of these frat guys wrote an apology for racist comments toward black people… but posted it to the only-Asian Facebook group “subtle asian greeks.”
7. The Buffalo PD reporting that an elderly man, whom officers had shoved on video, “tripped”
After public pushback, they revised their statement and suspended the officers. But would there have been consequences without the video?
Of course there are police officers who have done great things, who became officers because they wanted to protect their communities and enforce safety. But that doesn’t change the fact that the system is flawed if it continues to enable officers like the one who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes, murdering him. If it is so hard to seek appropriate justice for victims like Breonna Taylor, who was shot eight times in an attempted drug sting, and Ahmaud Arbery, whose murderer shot him while Ahmaud was jogging and used a racial slur as he died.
Lately, I’ve spoken to people who were incensed by the looping news footage of protesters looting buildings. “They shouldn’t loot businesses,” I heard. “That could be me.” “That’s not the right way to protest.”
On some levels, that’s fair. Looting is harmful and destructive, and we’re in the middle of a pandemic. But I think there could be more empathy and understanding of the situation in a broader context. The protests are an expression of anger, of being unheard. And what even is the “right” way to protest? You might say, “well, peacefully.” First, many of the protests for justice for Floyd began peacefully and only soured after police escalation. Second, people feel like nothing’s working. Colin Kaepernick peacefully knelt during the anthem, which ignited controversy and discussion but wasn’t enough for change, just enough to prevent him from finding work again.
In my city, people showed up to the Austin City Council budget priorities meeting and, over the course of eight hours, all asked to divert funds from the police department and into community issues that are relatively underfunded. The Council immediately voted 7-4 to increase the budget by >$400K.
When I want to ensure objectivity, I like to ask myself and others: if you have a strong stance on any of these issues, regardless of which side, what would it take to change your mind? For me, the prevalent videos of unnecessary police violence and the miscarriage of justice in numerous cases are what cemented my belief that any increased surveillance, training, and accountability measures, even if proving effective, are not working quickly enough. I would believe that these incidences were the work of just a few bad actors if they were turned in by “good actors” and then served fair sentences. I could believe that police require their large proportion of funding if someone could justify the increasing militarization of the police, especially over other community concerns.
I could believe that “All Lives Matter” is a legitimate movement and not just a rejection of black lives mattering if the former movement could exist on its own instead of only popping into existence to counter the latter. And I could believe Fox News saying these “riots” are about “power” and “the president” rather than discrimination if all these recent events hadn’t proven to me how radical it is now, apparently, to be against racism.
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What We Can Do:
125 Black-owned businesses to support
115 places to donate, including victim memorial funds
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