Peformative Activism in 2020
Gen Z is affectionately known as one of the most civically engaged generations thanks to the engagement and social awareness that platforms such as Twitter and Instagram have provided. For the first time ever, social issues that have run so deep in our culture have been exposed to ignorant people in a way that it can no longer be ignored: Police Brutality. Systemic Racism. Mass Incarceration. All of these issues regarding Black people and so much more have begun to be largely discussed on social media to educate White people and non-Black people to these institutionalized problems.
Through movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement, Americans who may not have been concerned or dedicated to the social equality of Black, began to do their part in raising awareness and making sure that these systematic issues of race in America aren’t dismissed and swept under the rug as the mainstream media and politicians are so quick to dismiss.
Social media has been instrumental in giving power to the people by providing a platform to users in order to raise awareness to problems or mobilize people into taking action. However, because of the amount of media attention that these organizations and movements have garnered, activism has become a sort of social media strategy for influencers, or social media celebrities, to grow their following even more by appearing to be “woke” or a “social justice warrior.”
They will post black screens as a weak attempt at showing solidarity with the Black struggle without even saying anything. They will attend protests in outfits they were planning on wearing to Coachella before it was cancelled this year to take pictures and leave. They will essentially do anything that will make it clear to their followers and those watching that they are socially aware, woke, activists, all of the words that seem to hold so much power these days.
If you haven’t been able to tell yet, this isn’t activism, quite frankly it’s the opposite of activism. Everyone is obligated to use their voice or platform or whatever tools they may have at their disposal to speak out against racism and police brutality in this country, but when it’s just for show and inauthentic, there is no progress made. Instead it becomes a trivialized trend, rather than a movement on the track towards massive social systematic change.
This isn’t activism, it’s performative activism: the antithesis of activism that essentially co-opts a movement from its grassroots origins in order to fulfill a superficial expectation from society that you are, in fact, an activist. It exploits the pain and oppression of the movement, specifically Black people in this situation, in order to gain social capital and reduce the importance and significance of the organization to nothing more than a hashtag.
Celebrities and influencers aren’t the only ones guilty of doing this, because it happens all around us. The recent #BlackOutTuesday trend was an example of this because what initially started as a way to amplify the voices of Black men and women rather than other non-Black people taking over the conversation, ended up becoming a performative trend that drowned out any attempt at spotlighting the work and lives of Black people in our community. They have made this movement centered around them and their “evidence” of goodwill and anti-racism, rather than about actually changing the system.
Marching for Black Lives has become a political strategy and photo-op rather than the “radical” idea that a world without police is very possible.
For the White people and non-Black POC who have centered the discourse on themselves rather than working for the efforts of Black people, ask yourselves what you are motivated by and what you intend on gaining from this.
So much of the privilege that non-Black people have made it difficult in perceiving that there could ever be a focus not on their own socio-economic problems or problems pertaining to gender and sexuality. But this is not about you or your activism. We are in a collective movement propelled by our desire for change, and if you want to identify yourself with this movement, you have to take your activism off screen as well. Racism exists rampantly in the world and it can’t be ended on social media. Awareness only takes us so far, so we must take the information we have and use it to create change.
We are on the precipice of a revolution; the air at protests is electrified and charged with exhaustion and impatience for a new future. We have to listen to these calls once and for all and join our Black brothers and sisters.
