PORTLAND, Ore —
Social media is a crazy place. Sometimes it gets a bad rap, but it really is where we can go to learn about things that matter, and listen to the voices that matter.
It's where we hear about and see examples of horrible violence against black people - George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and more.
And then we get to see proof of the world changing, in protests all around the globe.
So today if you've been on social media, you've probably seen a lot of black squares, and the phrases #BlackoutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused.
This was started by two black women who work in the music industry - Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang - asking the music industry to pause for a day, "in observance of the long-standing racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard. We will not continue to conduct business as usual without regard to black lives."
As their website reads, "The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.. that has profited predominantly from black art."
Of course, as the women mention, this is not something we can fix in one day. But the point is for all of us to pause for a day, to reflect and to listen to the black community.
Does your Instagram feed look like this?
That was not the original intention of the movement.
As Rodney V. Smith says in a tweet, "the blackout Tuesday does NOT mean to simply post a black picture and leave social media for the day. It means to stop promoting your own stuff for 24 hours, and instead amplify the voices & projects of Black creators, writers, directors, activists and more. pass it on."
Podcast host and NBC News contributor Brittany Packnett Cunningham explains it well.
"If you do that, you are actually helping to raise the voices of black people, instead of completely squashing the conversation. If we all get on our Instagram and everything is black, we’re not talking about the things that matter. And if you do decide to put up a black picture as a post, do not use the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Because what it does is when you click on the hashtag, everything in there is black. So suddenly all of the content, all of the art, all of the education, all of the announcements of protests and events, all of those are suddenly buried… Please do share this around, not for me, but so that our community can continue to be heard when it’s most necessary."
And it is necessary right now. We all want to do something, take some sort of action, right?
So instead of just posting a black square to your Instagram feed, here's what the creators of The Show Must be Paused say you can do.
On their website, there is a list of actions, including ways to donate to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. There are links to donate to help protesters and to learn more about how to be anti-racist.
