Protests following the killing of George Floyd
- Thread starter Abizzz
- Start date
i shouldn't but that's pretty originalAbsolutely out of control:
There's more footage which is not shown, news reports say when the police get off him (which we do not see in that clip) he is unconscious.
You really dont get it, do you?Rightwing vigilantes on armed patrol after fake rumours of antifa threat
'In the Idaho city of Coeur d’Alene groups of 30-50 men armed with semi-automatic weapons have occupied downtown streets on successive evenings this week, guarding against supposed busloads of radical leftists rumored to traveling from cities such as Spokane or Seattle, according to local residents and social media materials obtained by the Guardian.
Videos posted to social media by supporters of the vigilante groups showed dozens of people walking up and down a downtown shopping strip, with many open-carrying AR-15s and other semi-automatic long guns, and sporting tactical apparel.
In a cellphone video, as a videographer pans over the scene, he is heard to say: “If you guys are thinking of coming to Coeur D’Alene, to riot or loot, you’d better think again. Because we ain’t having it in our town.”
He adds: “I guess there’s a big rumor that people from Spokane are gonna come out here and act up. But that shit ain’t gonna happen.”'
(Guardian)
'In the Idaho city of Coeur d’Alene groups of 30-50 men armed with semi-automatic weapons have occupied downtown streets on successive evenings this week, guarding against supposed busloads of radical leftists rumored to traveling from cities such as Spokane or Seattle, according to local residents and social media materials obtained by the Guardian.
Videos posted to social media by supporters of the vigilante groups showed dozens of people walking up and down a downtown shopping strip, with many open-carrying AR-15s and other semi-automatic long guns, and sporting tactical apparel.
In a cellphone video, as a videographer pans over the scene, he is heard to say: “If you guys are thinking of coming to Coeur D’Alene, to riot or loot, you’d better think again. Because we ain’t having it in our town.”
He adds: “I guess there’s a big rumor that people from Spokane are gonna come out here and act up. But that shit ain’t gonna happen.”'
(Guardian)
Yeah they should never have posted all of those police brutality videos. Look at all the trouble it's causing.
Well no but like someone else said it's the American dream isnt it.
I think he does unfortunately outside of the tiny part of his post you highlighted. My twitter feed is a warzone. People are using police brutality to try and incite anger in others or demonstrate that the police are some kind of force for evil.
People gathering in thousands the UK willing to let innocent people catch a virus and die just to support their right to roam about with a bit of cardboard.
There's a lot of stuff going on that's going to do more harm to the cause than help it.
People should calm down and think about what they're trying to achieve rather than resort to stupidity just to prove they want to achieve it. Obviously this applies only to the idiots but lets not pretend they don't exist. There's about 10,000 of them in Parliament square alone right now.
Yep, that’s what it’s all about.
So, only to prove that it's you with the agenda, this search took me 1 minute. Anyway, this incident didn't happen in the UK, so why should it be widely reported?
If I were you, I wouldn't say much more. If you think your world is teetering on its edge, its because people of all races are fed up of white privilege. I'd suggest you do something about this, and then your world won't teeter any more.
I think what you need to do in your few days away is come to terms with your biases and change your view on the world. Enjoy.
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I accidentally got caught up in the protest on my way home. I thought it would have died down by the time I got there, but it was still the busiest I've seen that area since the Rangers-Zenit final.
The chants/placards about British policing made sense to me. But I didn't quite understand why they were chanting specifically about justice for George Floyd in Manchester of all places. I mean, I don't disagree. But the protest on UK soil should have been more about the overall BLM movement and its opposition to the insidious effects of institutional racism on POC in this country. It felt like a lot of the kids there didn't quite understand the moment and wanted to say something kind of on topic for the sake of being able to claim they participated in a protest (and if I'm being harsh probably to take a few instagram photos).
Still, I don't want to be too critical. Their sheer presence at least helps to get the overriding message across. But I would have liked to have seen a better grasp of the issues over and above a single case of heinous injustice.
On a side point: everybody in area was packed like sardines. Plenty of face masks, but I'm not sure they'd have been too effective with so many rubbing shoulders.
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Don't be a bellend.
People will die as a result of that protest. If I told you that you could go attend an anti racism march but only if I was allowed to murder 100 innocent people as a result, would you go? Or is it suddenly ok if I'm a virus rather than a person?
If they actually thought black lives mattered, they probably wouldn't be there causing black people to die of corona virus.
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Have read people here say that one shouldn't question the safety /Covid aspect of these protests and that it's a personal choice. But I think it's definitely debateable at the very least and possibly the wrong thing to do.
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Im allowed to edit a response, to make it more accurate to how I feel. In this instance, I doubled down even further, so not sure what the problem is.
So start your own movement , attract your own followers, and get on the streets. Chop chop. Have fun.
Coming from the person who’s reduced the motive of protest to “the right to roam about with a bit of cardboard” and earlier stated that racism isn’t an issue in the UK, I’m fine with you insulting me.
The thing is noods, beneath all the rambling, overly long, condescending, presumptuous asshattery you actually have the semblance of a solid point, and the lack of social distancing is a legitimate concern in these times.
The problem is you throw all the other ignorance around it and it gets diluted.
Thanks for the sensible and calm post noodle
Take care all.
All lives matter.
Feck me. Didn’t think I’d see someone on here come out with that line. Surely one of the most half-witted phrases in the history of t’internet?
That is just one of the dumbest posts I've seen in a while...and there has been a few. What are latinos by the way if not people of colour?? Yesterday, they just posted a video of a WHITE 75 yr old guy getting pushed and cracking his head on the pavement. The officers have been suspended. There's been videos of innocent protesters of all colours getting manhandled by the police. Where have you fecking been?
Looks like you're the one with the fecking agenda.
You’re being incredibly selective with your viewing then, because most of the videos I see and even in here ones that are viral are of white people being attacked. It almost makes me think you have an agenda of your own.
An agenda backed by any statistics you'd care to find?!?
This narrow mindedness is precisely the reason people are protesting despite putting lives on the line.
Thanks for the sensible and calm post noodle
Take care all.
All lives matter.
Yeah, I'm not on board with this all lives matter nonsense.
I support the cause re: black lives matter. I just don't see how inciting hatred against other groups, marching around giving each other a deadly disease, or just angrily shouting at or being sarcastic to anyone with a slightly different point of view is meant to help.
If you believe black lives matter then the first thing is to act and behave like they do, rather than do things that will just reinforce opposing views and cause more black lives to be harmed or face prejudice.
Absolutely out of control:
Have you ever been racially discriminated against? Did it involve violence? Was it from the police?
You were saying that no videos of brutality towards white people were being posted so you were called out on it. If it wasn't for the videos being posted we would not be getting justice for Arbery, Floyd and countless others who have been abused or worse killed by the police. Not many white people have that to contend with in their experiences with the law, unless they are genuine assholes and criminals.
So your need for balance is a little misguided when the odds are already heavily stacked against black people.
It’s actually more common than you think people passing out during these sort of incidents. They push themselves so hard, adrenaline kicks in but after a few mins their body can shut down.
It happens a lot with people who have acute behavioural disorder. These people tend to have to be restrained by several officers and some of them have ended up going into cardiac arrest and dying either in the street or in custody.
There’s an unhelpful game going on at the moment though, where people are now posting basically any video they can find of U.K. police essentially trying to detain people actively resisting arrest and claiming it is brutality. Scraps happen all the time, surprisingly people don’t like being arrested and you can’t always ask them politely to go in cuffs.
Absolutely out of control:
BrilliantIn the end the poster always reveals his true self.Thanks for the sensible and calm post noodle
Take care all.
All lives matter.
Thanks for the sensible and calm post noodle
Take care all.
All lives matter.
If you can't even argue honestly don't bother. I never said racism wasn't a problem in the UK and you know full well I didn't. I said that we all have the same rights in the UK and the way to combat it here is to change people's mindsets and educate people. What about this do you disagree with?
The problem is exactly what I was saying in the other thread earlier. You take words and twist them to suit your agenda and eventually whatever cause there is behind it gets lost in that. It becomes a side issue in the quest to appear smart. Or we just get sarcastic replies like the last one where you are more interested in not letting someone have a different point of view than actually debating it. All it achieves is you alienate yourself from anyone who doesn't agree. If everything is black or white then it always will be.
If black lives matter then passing a virus around that will kill some of them is the first thing you should concern yourself with not doing. At some point that HAS become less important than wandering around with a bit of cardboard, because you can't be telling me anyone there isn't aware there's a worldwide pandemic going on or of the risks involved
Do you take painkillers when your partner is undergoing surgery?Thanks for the sensible and calm post noodle
Take care all.
All lives matter.
Plenty of police brutality against anyone they don't like now. In fact just saw the brutality against the press too in the USA and it includes white Australian press, white American press and white Russian press and of course black and Hispanic press. All of them had their press passes and showed it to the police.
Actually I feel with their war on civilians lots of non racists white people are going to join the protests. I know already there are lots of white protestors joining already.
I am shocked that there are people still defending the police brutality against non violent protestors.
I guess during apartheid days there were lots of white South Africans who did support the apartheid.
Actually I feel with their war on civilians lots of non racists white people are going to join the protests. I know already there are lots of white protestors joining already.
I am shocked that there are people still defending the police brutality against non violent protestors.
I guess during apartheid days there were lots of white South Africans who did support the apartheid.
You've literally just been shown various international news organisations showing the old white bloke being pushed over. Preceding this the chatter was of a cyclist assaulting a little white girl putting up BLM posters. Before that there was Joseph Bologna beating up white people with a baton, before that photographs of a white tramp in a wheelchair being shot in the head with rubber bullets. Before that a white woman being kicked while sitting on the floor. Before that there was footage of a LAPD officer smacking white protesters with a baton. By far the most widespread demonstration of police violence taken up in recent days was of the police action in Lafayette square that affected protesters and media of all stripes.
All these were posted in this thread since 11am yesterday. Your assertion that the videos are exclusively of police brutality against black people doesn't seem to be in any way born out by reality.
I found it interesting that the people I know on Facebook and Instagram attending the virus bonanza in London are only documenting their attendance in their 'story' which gets deleted after 24 hours. The cynic in me thinks they realise that they will face backlash in the coming months when it comes to light that there were spikes in deaths from the virus as a result of the protests. The realist in me thinks that it's just a coincidence and they're too unbelievably ignorant to not realise that they'll be responsible for the deaths of many in their city.
But yea, go on defending their right to protest. Because the protests in London will make a massive difference in the fight against racial discrimination nationally and internationally. I'm sure the dead would understand.
But yea, go on defending their right to protest. Because the protests in London will make a massive difference in the fight against racial discrimination nationally and internationally. I'm sure the dead would understand.
Right now on CNN they are showing the white old man who was pushed to the ground and fell and banged his head and got unconscious.
Stop resorting to gutter arguments. If anyone who isn't racially discriminated against is disqualified from having an opinion on racial discrimination, then racial discrimination will always be a thing.
I actually completely understand the protests in america even including the ones that have turned nasty to an extent. I don't think it's reasonable to expect any other reaction at this point. When it comes to the twitter warriors and people here though it is not the same. There is no reason not to focus on trying to help the cause rather than attacking people's emotions to incite anger and hatred.
I see this a little like the on paper this team is better than this team football argument. On paper it may state we all have the same rights in the UK but when you actually start looking at it 'off paper' you see the huge inequalities in how people are treated, their opportunities etc.
Something I don’t understand is what’s the end game here? How many consecutive days will we have thousands of people crowding the streets in the UK and Ireland? Obviously, the covid outbreak risk gets higher and higher with each day of protest. When will the organisers decide they’ve made their point? In the US they can focus on the specific court case but what’s the equivalent over here?
I'll be charitable and open minded in assuming you dont really understand what you are saying when you state 'White Lives Matter'. Im also willing to concede that you can be suspicious of left wing opinion because that doesn't suit your world view.Thanks for the sensible and calm post noodle
Take care all.
All lives matter.
Because of that open mindedness and sympathy, and because its most likely behind a paywall, Ive copy/pasted what The Telegraph has to say on the matter in the spoiler below. I really hope you can read this and honestly think about why you reach your conclusions, and why they may be morally completely wrong. Best wsihes
The do's and don'ts of posting about George Floyd and Black Lives Matter – according to celebrities
Since George Floyd's death, social media has caught fire with the missteps of careless celebrities. What can we learn from their mistakes?
By Eleanor Halls 4 June 2020 • 3:30pm
Since George Floyd died while being brutally restrained by a white Minnesota police officer on May 25, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has swept across social media. And absolutely everyone is expected to say something, or be damned. An empty Twitter feed is now a conspicuous badge of complicity with the racists – silence has become deafening.
Celebrities have therefore rushed into frenzied activism to varying levels of success and with intentions both pure and shallow. Some have misjudged their contributions so poorly that the backlash has chased them off social media altogether.
But there's a lot we can learn from how the rich, famous – and thoughtless – have responded to this watershed moment of social, cultural and political upheaval. Here are some particularly illustrative examples:
DO: listen first, speak second
It’s astonishing to see just how many people on social media are refusing to listen and learn before they join in a conversation that is delicate, complicated, and surrounds an issue of which they have no first-hand experience. And no one has had to bear the brunt of public ignorance quite like Star Wars actor John Boyega, whose Twitter and Instagram profiles have become a blazing hotbed of debate ever since he Tweeted, the day of the murder: ‘I really f---ing hate racists’.
The comments in response range from the idiotic to the irrelevant, with many insisting on misplaced, woolly aphorisms such as ‘You can’t fight hate with hate’, and needlessly attacking Boyega, who is black British, for focussing solely on white on black racism rather than racism against – for instance – Hispanic or Asian communities. ‘I am not talking about other perspectives given the current situation is that okay?’ politely responded Boyega, implying that this is not the moment to try and tackle all forms of oppression at once, nor for other races to co-opt this very specific injustice against the black community.
More sinister still, others took Boyega’s perfectly understandable statement as itself racist against white people. ‘Is it racist when a black person expresses hatred for all white people simply because they are white?’ one Tweeted back, willfully misunderstanding Boyega’s reference to racists as ‘all white people’ – itself ironically self-damning.
Boyega tweeted in response to the unfolding controversy on May 28: ‘Are you guys on twitter dedicated to seeing what’s in your head and not what I wrote?’
DON’T: virtue signal
Before posting about Black Lives Matter on your social media accounts, ask yourself: who is this really for? Is this adding to the conversation, or is it exploitative virtue signalling? Is your Blackout Instagram square matched by tangible action: a donation, a protest, support for black businesses and creatives, or implementing a structural change in your workplace?
On the night of George Floyd’s death, Madonna, who has been in constant hot water over her provocative comments on the coronavirus crisis (calling, from a bathtub full of rose petals, the pandemic a “great equaliser”), posted a video on Instagram of her son David, who is black, dancing to Michael Jackson. The caption read: “my son David Dances to honor and pay tribute to George and His Family and all Acts of Racism and Discrimination that happen on a daily basis in America.”
Commenters were quick to point out how ineffectual dancing would be to combat racism: “Omfg you have just ended racism just by dancing!” Others took the opportunity to highlight Madonna’s problematic history of cultural appropriation (such as with the heavily Latin influence of her latest album Madame X). “This is so silly Madonna. You see black people as entertainment. You do not understand blackness! Stop the nonsense,” wrote one.
Model Heidi Klum was also shamed into deleting a particularly insipid post which showed her and her four children (whom she shares with her ex-husband Seal) interlinking hands, with the caption, “Unity in Diversity, LOVE” and the hashtag #AllLivesMatter, which is a slogan that has come to define racists and the alt right. Klum deleted the Twitter post and edited out the hashtag on Instagram, all the while defending it by commenting: “My son wanted AllLives.” Many followers found it an exploitative use of her children’s blackness as a way to ingratiate and insert herself within the conversation.
DO: inspire your audience
If you sit on a following that can be educated and influenced positively, use it. Eighteen-year-old Billie Eilish earned praise for her impassioned Instagram post that, in a furious tirade of capital letters, lambasted any followers who refused to stop bleating AllLivesMatter. “IF I HEAR ONE MORE WHITE PERSON SAY aLL liVes maTter ONE MORE F---ING TIME IM GONNA LOSE MY F---ING MIND. WILL YOU SHUT THE F--- UUUUUUUUUUUUUUP??? NO ONE IS SAYING YOUR LIFE DOESNT MATTER. NO ONE IS SAYING YOUR LIFE IS NOT HARD. NO ONE IS SAYING LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT YOU’, she wrote, before linking to all the ways in which her followers could donate to those affected by systemic racism and those arrested during the protests.
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande used her huge platform to promote a different kind of story: the one of many peaceful protests going on in Los Angeles that is being selectively omitted from much of the media coverage across the world. Posting a video of a peaceful march, she wrote: “hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage. all throughout beverly hills and west hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along. we were passionate, we were loud, we were loving.cover this too please.”
Hangover star Seth Rogan has also done the right thing by telling those who believe his Black Lives Matter statement is controversial to unfollow him. For almost every comment disputing this, Rogan has alternated between telling the person to, “F--- off’, or to ‘stop watching my movies.”
DON’T: post before you think
Billie Eilish’s sincerity stood stark against the actions of Lana del Rey, who faced a fierce backlash on Sunday night after sharing an uncaptioned video of black, female protesters looting during the protests in America. Was she shaming them? Was she unaware that most people on Instagram also have direct access to the news? Did she have no concern for these women’s safety? The lack of caption was not only careless (none of the protestors had their faces blurred out, and the video zoomed in on their features) but grossly insensitive, as if the singer simply couldn’t be bothered to add any context, thought or incentive for her followers to learn or at the very least donate to appropriate charities.
Her comments were also turned off, forcing musicians Tinashe and Kehlani to tag the star on Twitter, asking her to remove the video immediately. “.@LanaDelRey please remove your instagram post it’s dangerous as f–k and a very poor choice of moments to post,” Kehlani wrote in a since-deleted tweet. She continued: “by all means protest, but DO NOT endanger people with your very massive platform. oh and turn your f–kin comments on man.”
DO: share your platform
Lizzo took to Twitter to call on more celebrities to offer up their platforms, saying, “I wonder what would happen if all the big companies and celebrities who have showed support on social media came out and used their platform to let activists and protesters speak and be seen?”
Australian actor Cody Fern has been one of the first celebrities to take note, and is today hosting an Instagram live with transgender, black activist Angelica Ross, so that she could discuss the injustices in her community in front of his 700,000 followers.
DON’T: be stingy
As a public figure of significant wealth, making a great show and dance of personal donations so measly a child’s piggy bank would be of greater use, is a sure way to get our eyes rolling. Either contribute the big bucks, as Chrissy Teigen did with her $100k or Star Wars director JJ Abrams with his whopping $10m, or donate privately and quietly, as have celebrities including Harry Styles, Michael Jordan, and Lorde. Floyd Mayweather has even picked up the cost of Floyd's funeral.
Yet Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton and CEO of his streetwear label Off-White, has been mocked across social media for posting a screenshot of his $50 donation to bail out protestors. As one of the most respected and sought after creatives in global fashion, Abloh is thought to be worth millions. To be clear, a pair of his Off-White socks, the cheapest item from his brand, retail at $115.
Despite resonating with an earlier post about the trauma associated with being a black man in America (“on an average trip to the grocery store in Chicago I fear I will die”), Abloh’s screenshot left his followers irked, with thousands of comments criticizing his stinginess as an insult to the Black Lives Matter movement, and questioning his brand’s ethics. Wrote one: “Let’s remember that VIRGIL’s Offwhite employees are all white so he never cared for black people anyways”, referring to last May when Abloh’s Instagram stories portrayed a seemingly all-white design team for Off-White. Another: “Virgil a whole coon for this petty amount of money. N**** sells $600 hoodies but has only $50 to give a bail fund. Virgil doesn't care about the culture, he just exploits it.”
DO: call out commercial hypocrisy
Brands that trade in black culture and frequently use black influencers to front their campaigns, such as Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing, initially remained conspicuously silent following Floyd’s death, and have been called out accordingly.
Brands who have found themselves on the wrong side of history in the past have fared no better. Model and activist Munroe Bergdorf took a stand against her former employer L’Oreal after the cosmetics company posted on social media in support of Black Lives Matter and the caption: “Speaking out is worth it.”
Bergdorf, who was controversially dropped from L’Oreal after speaking out against structural racism following the Charlottesville massacre, retweeted the post with the comment: “Excuse my language but I am SO angry. F*** YOU @lorealparis. You dropped me from a campaign in 2017 and threw me to the wolves for speaking out about racism and white supremacy. With no duty of care, without a second thought.”
Nike and Adidas, however, who have worked with black stars including Stormzy, Anthony Joshua and LeBron James, were two of the first brands to offer their solidarity, with the rival sportswear giants even posting support on each other’s posts after Nike shared a video riffing on their Just Do It tagline, this time reading: 'Don't Do It. Don't pretend there's not a race problem in America.”
DON'T: forget to be kind
Predictably, some on social media have turned the Black Lives Matter movement into a woke contest, naming and shaming those who have been slower than them to react or donate, even within the black community itself.
Top Boy star Ashley Walters, for instance, was forced to explain his “silence” via a video yesterday that showed him break down in tears.
He said: “My point of coming on here today is no one can tell me I am complicit because I haven’t posted anything about the scenario for several reasons, but for the main one, I’ve been posting this thing all of my f---ing career. ‘I’ve seen black people and big corporations posting about your silence is a betrayal. Don’t ever f---ing tell me that my silence is a f---ing betrayal when I’ve been left for dead on the street by white men. ‘Stabbed and left for dead and these people have never been brought to justice. I f---ing worked hard, put my life on the line for all these f---ing men out here while this s*** has been going on.”
Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson starred in brilliant drama Top Boy
DO: educate yourself
It’s not the responsibility of people of colour to teach you about racism – it’s yours. There are already thousands of existing reading lists, articles, essays, podcasts, books and guides available to consume, from notable writers including Roxane Gay and Reni Eddo-Lodge to broadcasters Tina Daheley and activist Akala.
Many trending Twitter hashtags are bursting with thoroughly researched threads to get stuck into, while you can barely scroll down an inch on Instagram before finding a photographed stack of books to take note of or a well-annotated graphic of how white privilege and systemic racism is structured.
Do the work, share your resources when appropriate, and don’t pontificate on your shiny new wokeness – you’re late to the party anyway.
To support the Black Lives Matter movement, you can donate to bail funds throughout America, or to grassroots organisations to help bail reform.
Since George Floyd's death, social media has caught fire with the missteps of careless celebrities. What can we learn from their mistakes?
By Eleanor Halls 4 June 2020 • 3:30pm
Since George Floyd died while being brutally restrained by a white Minnesota police officer on May 25, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has swept across social media. And absolutely everyone is expected to say something, or be damned. An empty Twitter feed is now a conspicuous badge of complicity with the racists – silence has become deafening.
Celebrities have therefore rushed into frenzied activism to varying levels of success and with intentions both pure and shallow. Some have misjudged their contributions so poorly that the backlash has chased them off social media altogether.
But there's a lot we can learn from how the rich, famous – and thoughtless – have responded to this watershed moment of social, cultural and political upheaval. Here are some particularly illustrative examples:
DO: listen first, speak second
It’s astonishing to see just how many people on social media are refusing to listen and learn before they join in a conversation that is delicate, complicated, and surrounds an issue of which they have no first-hand experience. And no one has had to bear the brunt of public ignorance quite like Star Wars actor John Boyega, whose Twitter and Instagram profiles have become a blazing hotbed of debate ever since he Tweeted, the day of the murder: ‘I really f---ing hate racists’.
The comments in response range from the idiotic to the irrelevant, with many insisting on misplaced, woolly aphorisms such as ‘You can’t fight hate with hate’, and needlessly attacking Boyega, who is black British, for focussing solely on white on black racism rather than racism against – for instance – Hispanic or Asian communities. ‘I am not talking about other perspectives given the current situation is that okay?’ politely responded Boyega, implying that this is not the moment to try and tackle all forms of oppression at once, nor for other races to co-opt this very specific injustice against the black community.
More sinister still, others took Boyega’s perfectly understandable statement as itself racist against white people. ‘Is it racist when a black person expresses hatred for all white people simply because they are white?’ one Tweeted back, willfully misunderstanding Boyega’s reference to racists as ‘all white people’ – itself ironically self-damning.
Boyega tweeted in response to the unfolding controversy on May 28: ‘Are you guys on twitter dedicated to seeing what’s in your head and not what I wrote?’
DON’T: virtue signal
Before posting about Black Lives Matter on your social media accounts, ask yourself: who is this really for? Is this adding to the conversation, or is it exploitative virtue signalling? Is your Blackout Instagram square matched by tangible action: a donation, a protest, support for black businesses and creatives, or implementing a structural change in your workplace?
On the night of George Floyd’s death, Madonna, who has been in constant hot water over her provocative comments on the coronavirus crisis (calling, from a bathtub full of rose petals, the pandemic a “great equaliser”), posted a video on Instagram of her son David, who is black, dancing to Michael Jackson. The caption read: “my son David Dances to honor and pay tribute to George and His Family and all Acts of Racism and Discrimination that happen on a daily basis in America.”
Commenters were quick to point out how ineffectual dancing would be to combat racism: “Omfg you have just ended racism just by dancing!” Others took the opportunity to highlight Madonna’s problematic history of cultural appropriation (such as with the heavily Latin influence of her latest album Madame X). “This is so silly Madonna. You see black people as entertainment. You do not understand blackness! Stop the nonsense,” wrote one.
Model Heidi Klum was also shamed into deleting a particularly insipid post which showed her and her four children (whom she shares with her ex-husband Seal) interlinking hands, with the caption, “Unity in Diversity, LOVE” and the hashtag #AllLivesMatter, which is a slogan that has come to define racists and the alt right. Klum deleted the Twitter post and edited out the hashtag on Instagram, all the while defending it by commenting: “My son wanted AllLives.” Many followers found it an exploitative use of her children’s blackness as a way to ingratiate and insert herself within the conversation.
DO: inspire your audience
If you sit on a following that can be educated and influenced positively, use it. Eighteen-year-old Billie Eilish earned praise for her impassioned Instagram post that, in a furious tirade of capital letters, lambasted any followers who refused to stop bleating AllLivesMatter. “IF I HEAR ONE MORE WHITE PERSON SAY aLL liVes maTter ONE MORE F---ING TIME IM GONNA LOSE MY F---ING MIND. WILL YOU SHUT THE F--- UUUUUUUUUUUUUUP??? NO ONE IS SAYING YOUR LIFE DOESNT MATTER. NO ONE IS SAYING YOUR LIFE IS NOT HARD. NO ONE IS SAYING LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT YOU’, she wrote, before linking to all the ways in which her followers could donate to those affected by systemic racism and those arrested during the protests.
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande used her huge platform to promote a different kind of story: the one of many peaceful protests going on in Los Angeles that is being selectively omitted from much of the media coverage across the world. Posting a video of a peaceful march, she wrote: “hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage. all throughout beverly hills and west hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along. we were passionate, we were loud, we were loving.cover this too please.”
Hangover star Seth Rogan has also done the right thing by telling those who believe his Black Lives Matter statement is controversial to unfollow him. For almost every comment disputing this, Rogan has alternated between telling the person to, “F--- off’, or to ‘stop watching my movies.”
DON’T: post before you think
Billie Eilish’s sincerity stood stark against the actions of Lana del Rey, who faced a fierce backlash on Sunday night after sharing an uncaptioned video of black, female protesters looting during the protests in America. Was she shaming them? Was she unaware that most people on Instagram also have direct access to the news? Did she have no concern for these women’s safety? The lack of caption was not only careless (none of the protestors had their faces blurred out, and the video zoomed in on their features) but grossly insensitive, as if the singer simply couldn’t be bothered to add any context, thought or incentive for her followers to learn or at the very least donate to appropriate charities.
Her comments were also turned off, forcing musicians Tinashe and Kehlani to tag the star on Twitter, asking her to remove the video immediately. “.@LanaDelRey please remove your instagram post it’s dangerous as f–k and a very poor choice of moments to post,” Kehlani wrote in a since-deleted tweet. She continued: “by all means protest, but DO NOT endanger people with your very massive platform. oh and turn your f–kin comments on man.”
DO: share your platform
Lizzo took to Twitter to call on more celebrities to offer up their platforms, saying, “I wonder what would happen if all the big companies and celebrities who have showed support on social media came out and used their platform to let activists and protesters speak and be seen?”
Australian actor Cody Fern has been one of the first celebrities to take note, and is today hosting an Instagram live with transgender, black activist Angelica Ross, so that she could discuss the injustices in her community in front of his 700,000 followers.
DON’T: be stingy
As a public figure of significant wealth, making a great show and dance of personal donations so measly a child’s piggy bank would be of greater use, is a sure way to get our eyes rolling. Either contribute the big bucks, as Chrissy Teigen did with her $100k or Star Wars director JJ Abrams with his whopping $10m, or donate privately and quietly, as have celebrities including Harry Styles, Michael Jordan, and Lorde. Floyd Mayweather has even picked up the cost of Floyd's funeral.
Yet Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton and CEO of his streetwear label Off-White, has been mocked across social media for posting a screenshot of his $50 donation to bail out protestors. As one of the most respected and sought after creatives in global fashion, Abloh is thought to be worth millions. To be clear, a pair of his Off-White socks, the cheapest item from his brand, retail at $115.
Despite resonating with an earlier post about the trauma associated with being a black man in America (“on an average trip to the grocery store in Chicago I fear I will die”), Abloh’s screenshot left his followers irked, with thousands of comments criticizing his stinginess as an insult to the Black Lives Matter movement, and questioning his brand’s ethics. Wrote one: “Let’s remember that VIRGIL’s Offwhite employees are all white so he never cared for black people anyways”, referring to last May when Abloh’s Instagram stories portrayed a seemingly all-white design team for Off-White. Another: “Virgil a whole coon for this petty amount of money. N**** sells $600 hoodies but has only $50 to give a bail fund. Virgil doesn't care about the culture, he just exploits it.”
DO: call out commercial hypocrisy
Brands that trade in black culture and frequently use black influencers to front their campaigns, such as Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing, initially remained conspicuously silent following Floyd’s death, and have been called out accordingly.
Brands who have found themselves on the wrong side of history in the past have fared no better. Model and activist Munroe Bergdorf took a stand against her former employer L’Oreal after the cosmetics company posted on social media in support of Black Lives Matter and the caption: “Speaking out is worth it.”
Bergdorf, who was controversially dropped from L’Oreal after speaking out against structural racism following the Charlottesville massacre, retweeted the post with the comment: “Excuse my language but I am SO angry. F*** YOU @lorealparis. You dropped me from a campaign in 2017 and threw me to the wolves for speaking out about racism and white supremacy. With no duty of care, without a second thought.”
Nike and Adidas, however, who have worked with black stars including Stormzy, Anthony Joshua and LeBron James, were two of the first brands to offer their solidarity, with the rival sportswear giants even posting support on each other’s posts after Nike shared a video riffing on their Just Do It tagline, this time reading: 'Don't Do It. Don't pretend there's not a race problem in America.”
DON'T: forget to be kind
Predictably, some on social media have turned the Black Lives Matter movement into a woke contest, naming and shaming those who have been slower than them to react or donate, even within the black community itself.
Top Boy star Ashley Walters, for instance, was forced to explain his “silence” via a video yesterday that showed him break down in tears.
He said: “My point of coming on here today is no one can tell me I am complicit because I haven’t posted anything about the scenario for several reasons, but for the main one, I’ve been posting this thing all of my f---ing career. ‘I’ve seen black people and big corporations posting about your silence is a betrayal. Don’t ever f---ing tell me that my silence is a f---ing betrayal when I’ve been left for dead on the street by white men. ‘Stabbed and left for dead and these people have never been brought to justice. I f---ing worked hard, put my life on the line for all these f---ing men out here while this s*** has been going on.”
Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson starred in brilliant drama Top Boy
DO: educate yourself
It’s not the responsibility of people of colour to teach you about racism – it’s yours. There are already thousands of existing reading lists, articles, essays, podcasts, books and guides available to consume, from notable writers including Roxane Gay and Reni Eddo-Lodge to broadcasters Tina Daheley and activist Akala.
Many trending Twitter hashtags are bursting with thoroughly researched threads to get stuck into, while you can barely scroll down an inch on Instagram before finding a photographed stack of books to take note of or a well-annotated graphic of how white privilege and systemic racism is structured.
Do the work, share your resources when appropriate, and don’t pontificate on your shiny new wokeness – you’re late to the party anyway.
To support the Black Lives Matter movement, you can donate to bail funds throughout America, or to grassroots organisations to help bail reform.