About a year ago, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement had received huge waves of support in light of the discriminatory and immoral killings of numerous people within the Black community in the United States of America. As a response, the number of protests, riots, advocacies, and more have increased exponentially during that period. This period of civil right advocacy established its place on social media, and forms of showing support to the Black community, came in forms of hashtags, chain posting on stories, black square on feeds, and more.
In its prominence, it’s important to note that during the time #BLACKLIVESMATTER was blowing up, there were a considerable number of people who did it because they were devoted to the cause and people who did it for reputation and praise 一 otherwise known as performative activism.
Performative activism, also known as “slacktivism”, is extremely prevalent in the present day. To help us understand what performative activism looks like, let's take a look at these examples. Emma Watson has faced backlash back in 2020 for posting a “black square” on her Instagram feed with a white border around it to match her Insta-aesthetic and the “blackout” trend to show her support for #BLACKLIVESMATTER
Emma Watson had joined the blackout. So, what's the issue? The issue that netizens have pointed out was that Emma Watson had the time to edit these “black squares” to post on her feed with four hashtags but had not contributed a single donation, signed a petition, nor graced a protest with her attendance. This led to an influx of people claiming that she had misused her platform. In making an optical stand over an impactful one, Emma Watson had made it seem like she was doing only showing solidarity for her reputation instead of her support for the Black community in such a critical time.
In today’s society, we do so many things unconsciously and we might feel as though “spreading awareness” is all we can do when, in reality, that is very far from the truth. Although spreading awareness is extremely important, if there is no action behind that awareness, nothing is going to substantially change.
There are also tons of other factors that we need to consider with performative activism, a few examples being herd mentality, wherein individuals adopt similar behaviors to those around them to fit in, and normative social influence, which pushes individuals to conform to be likable and accepted by those around them.
These factors are important when we consider who can be a performative activist in our lives, be it family, friend, idol, or even in ourselves. We can’t deny that we ourselves post things about a certain movement because our favorite celebrities do so or because the friends around us are doing it as well. Before jumping on the bandwagon, it might be better to ask yourself these questions:
● Am I doing this because I care for the movement or because my favorite celebrity is doing so?
● Is the intention of my support to make myself look better or is it to genuinely help these people even if I get nothing out of it?
● Do I feel any social obligation or pressure to talk about this issue?
● Am I knowledgeable enough about this issue to have a strong opinion on it?
At the end of the day, the #BLACKLIVESMATTER movement, or any movement, is not a phase or a trend. They represent something bigger than what’s behind a phone screen. We may just see a hashtag or a black square, but behind them are entire communities of people who have been denied basic human rights time and time again throughout history and to this day over something that they have no power over.
Arguably, the fight towards civil rights and racial equality in America started decades ago 一 unfortunately, it seems like it has never finished to this day. In this instance, being able to lend a hand to the fight and raising the Black community up in an impactful way is a privilege. Only with significant change can we help bring change that would give them the ending to this unfinished struggle.
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