Performative activism

A worldwide pandemic, Kanye west running for president, the death of NBA player Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant, 18.6 million hectares burned down in Australia and the United Kingdom left the EU, we can all agree that a lot happened in 2020, and most of us might even

agree that we never want to relive that year. But nonetheless some good things happened as well; Congo discharged its last Ebola patient, the first ever Korean director Bong Joon Ho made history when he won the Oscar for best director, The American supreme court ruled that LGBTQ employees are protected by civil rights employment statues, Scotland became the first ever country to make period products free and widespread protests over systemic racism took place on several places in the world.

The phrase black lives matter was first coined in 2013, by three black women in response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal, although the term didn’t gain widespread use until the 9th August 2014, when Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Missouri. Protesters took over the city holding signs with the phrase, in an attempt to fight the systematic discriminations distinctive in the police force, and police

brutality. The overwhelming police response to the protest, social media, ubiquitous video cameras and the recurrence of african-american deaths in the hands of police, kept the movement alive. The movement gained widespread attention again when George Floyd was arrested by the Minneapolis police on May 25th for allegedly using counterfeit bills. Video footage posted on social media showed how the officers kneeled on Floyd’s neck as he was pinned on the ground, frequently repeating that he couldn’t breath. George Floyd later died of insufficient oxygen. Several protests took place and the movement peaked on June 6, when half a million people in nearly 550 places in the United States protested in the name of social injustice. (Nytimes, 2020)

Although the protests led to a lot of positive outcomes, a distinct increase of performative activism was shown. “Blackout Tuesday” of June 2020 led to many Instagram users posing a black square to show their support for George Floyd protests. The idea was initially meant to spread awareness of the violence and discriminations against the Black community but caused more confusion instead. The #BLM hashtags started showing millions of black squares instead of useful information, and people now had to spend more time and effort to find useful information on Instagram as the hashtag was filled with black squares. This was highly criticised, as the act of posting a black square for some people had no intention rather than to stay “trendy” and “woke”. This was significantly illustrated when #BlackoutTuestad at one point had 19 million posts, while the petition fighting to get the officers arrested for George Floyd’s murder only had 11 million signatures. (sjuhawknews, 2020) The “Black Lives Matter '' street Murals seen in cities like Washington D.C, New York and Portland made to show support of the movement. The murals might have been beautiful but critics noted that the spectacle seemed like a way for Washington D.C mayor Muriel Bowser to gain a reaction from Donald Trump, rather than addressing her stance on the actions of the law enforcement in her city and actively taking actions to fight the social injustice and police brutality in her city. (purewow, 2021) Another very prominent example of performative activism, is when brands are quick to add rainbow flags to their social media accounts and products in June in an attempt to camouflage their desire to increase their sales in LGBTQ+ support. The term for this is “rainbow-washing” and is often used to criticize brands for selling LGBTQ+ “themed” products without actually doing anything to address or fight the violence and discrimination of the community.

Performative activism is dangerous as it takes the attention away from the very important issue and its causes. It focuses and praises the activist rather than the communities affected. Influencers and brands start attempting to gain likes, comments and views by using the “trendy” activist hashtags, in an attempt to raise views rather than to spread information. Performative activism also discourages people from taking actual actions. Although awareness is important, more actions have to be taken in order for a change to occur. It is easy to repost a tweet, a post and like a post but the problem with performative activism is that it discourages individuals to take real actions. The action of signing petitions, donating, contacting mayors and politicians and newspapers becomes invisible in the eyes of “repost and like”. The public, influencers and companies start doing things for the wrong reasons. Like for example when the National Football League (NFL) painted “End Racism” on their fields although they a couple years prior denounced Colin Kaepernick actions and denied him a spot in the league for taking a knee in support for the #blm movement.

Performative activism encourages people to change their profile picture, liking posts and using hashtags to show support on social media without really doing it in real life. It is dangerous and quite frankly hard to identify when it is performative or genuine. You might even have accidentally become a performative ally. If you recognize this behavior in yourself, you might be a part of the problem. Do not beat yourself up too much about it though. Take active actions in changing your behavior and educate yourself so that you can become a genuine ally who does more good than harm. Here comes some tips on how to become a better ally, from Purewow.com.

• Listen. Listen to what that specific community is telling you. As an ally, you should spend time amplifying these voices and putting them at the forefront of the conversation. This can mean taking a closer look at the privilege you hold in society. Is your stance taking away from the individuals fighting for this cause?

• Research, research, research. Before hitting the share button, take the time to research a cause or organization. Ask yourself, is this worth a retweet or more? Why am I raising awareness? Why is this so important to post this on social media? We’re so quick to put in a hashtag or share information without taking into account how much we really know about the subject.

• Don’t feel obligated to share how you’re helping on social media. It’s OK to move silently. A big issue with performative activism is that people want to avoid backlash or criticism from their peers if they don’t speak up online. It’s not the time to show your feed that you’re reading White Fragility. So, how are you going to show up outside of your Internet persona? When it’s no longer the “cool thing to do” or not displayed constantly across your screens, are you still going to be fighting for it?

• Take action. It’s fine to let people know where you stand on an issue, but what else are you doing? Are you influencing others to vote, donate and march? If you’re really passionate about a topic, make the effort to be more involved.

Don’t only be an ally when it’s convenient. Don’t only showcase your ally ship when Black History Month, Pride Month or Latinx Heritage Month rolls around. Show your support all year round, not just when you feel social pressure to do it.