George Floyd. It’s a name we’ve all come to know after the global social media response to his unprovoked and racially motivated death at the hands of a group of policemen in America. The immeasurable online response that ensued has seen countless posts of solidarity being shared across all social media platforms. But despite this overwhelming reaction and the calls for change, it seems unlikely that these messages will bring about any form of widespread systemic change. We only need to refer to the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Micheal Brown, Eric Garner to acknowledge that the same pattern occurs: a black individual dies, there is outcry and demand for change, but inevitably social media moves on. As if it were perceived as nothing more than a trend that’s run its course. But racism is not a trend, it won’t pass with time, it’s ingrained in over 400 years of history that cannot be remedied by a single Instagram post. In fact, the use of social media has the potential to cause harm to the very message being put forward by the Black Lives Matter movement. Take the latest activity on Instagram, which has seen the site flooded with black squares in an apparent attempt to take the focus off the usual Instagram aesthetics and instead promote the fundamental message against racism. But this very attempt to direct the focus to the Black Lives Matter movement has undermined it. It merely becomes another display of “wokeness”, whereby if they’ve posted a black square then I should too, regardless of understanding the reasons for it or not. Because what can we learn from a single black square? The answer is absolutely nothing, it’s merely an empty display. It does not inform us of the rioting on the streets of America, or the brutal retaliation by the police force towards predominantly peaceful protesters. That’s not to say that the millions of people sharing these black screens don’t care about the cause, but this form of solidarity merely recognises the issue at hand, without proposing a proactive response. We only need to acknowledge last year’s circulation of a blue square used to vocalise the injustices in Sudan and ultimately the outcome, or lack of that it generated, to understand the weakness of these viral social media attempts at generating change.
This isn’t to say that social media is obsolete in the fight against racism, because it’s not, its very use is fundamental for the cause. But its use must come in the right forms, with these forms being education and the encouragement of proactive approaches. We must circulate resources about our history and its relationship with racism, be it American, British or that of every country in between.These widely available resources come in the form of books, films, podcasts and news articles. If financial situations allow, we must donate to the organisations that are at the forefront of the battle. If travel permits, attend the demonstrations that will amplify the voices of everyone in attendance. We must sign the petitions calling for action, pressurising our governments and making our voices heard.
As a white person, I am aware that I will never experience discrimination or injustice as a result of my skin colour. However, I am also aware that I and every white individual can use our so-called racial power to bring about change for the black community if we take on board and act on the resources available.
A list of useful resources to support the BLM movement can be found here
Alice Price
Featured image courtesy of Phil Roeder on Flickr.