Social media and Black Lives Matter: Performance or true activism?
By Lisi Burciaga
It started in Minnesota, blazing a trail for action in Louisville and Los Angeles before eventually touching all 50 states. By the time the sun set on May 25, the day that George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police, the nation was watching.
The 8 minute and 46 second video of the incident that circulated social media is largely responsible for this, and the public outrage that followed turned Floyd’s death into a catalyst for more.
Social media worked to bridge the divide created by the pandemic this year by taking on a new life in activism amid the activity surrounding the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement, spreading the message like wildfire. The New York Times reported in June that in the two week period following Floyd’s death, support for BLM increased by nearly as much as it had in the past two years according to data by Civiq.
Whether the sudden public interest in BLM as it began to dominate the social media scene is indicative of deeper problems has become a point of discussion. Veterans of the movement who’ve worked to uphold and spread the BLM message for years wonder, why now?
Florence Annang, head of Communications and Publicity for the Pasadena branch of the NAACP said that the organization has been ready to receive this kind of support, but she saw it manifest in numbers after Floyd’s death. She believes that when it comes to social justice work, as we use social media, social media uses us.
“The truth of it is in how social media used us,” Annang said. “When George Floyd happened I think we were at 200 or 300 followers. Being a local branch sometimes only local people get to know you. Then in the weeks after George Floyd, people wanted to connect and now we’ve gotten to 2,000 plus followers. I think social media connected with us, we didn’t do anything. We were just ready to receive.”
The movement got its start when Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi took to Facebook in 2013 to condemn the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, with a simple mantra: #BlackLivesMatter. The hashtag gained widespread usage in later years and has since been used to speak out on police brutality against the Black community. The Center for Media and Social Impact analyzed online activity surrounding BLM and concluded that the movement’s social media presence has played an essential role in it’s real-world growth.
“[Newspapers] might say ‘we tell you what’s going on, but we don’t give you the space to respond unless you write a letter to us, put it in the mail, we read it days later and if it’s interesting we might share it.’ Now, everyone can be their own editor.”
“I think the idea that you can tell people there’s an injustice in a way that engages them to be involved is different from the way that the newspapers have done it for centuries,” Annang said. “They might say ‘we tell you what’s going on, but we don’t give you the space to respond unless you write a letter to us, put it in the mail, we read it days later and if it’s interesting we might share it.’ Now, everyone can be their own editor.”
Annang acknowledges the flaws of social media, but values how the platforms can give a voice to marginalized groups.
“I’m not saying it’s all good, but I think the power of voice has been tremendous,” Annang said.
Local artist Brenda Barrios is among those who use social media for activism. But unlike many of her peers, when Barrios posts, her message reaches thousands. She has garnered over 30,000 followers on Instagram where she displays her art.
“I have used my social media platform for the Black Lives Matter Movement by making accessible, free posters that people could download and take to protests,” said the PCC alumna and UCLA Art Major. “I helped organize the event Paint the City for this great organization Compassionate Arts.”
Barrios posts her colorful illustrations, often depicting social causes like BLM and Rock the Vote, in the name of raising support, money or awareness.
“I think it definitely helps and brings awareness to the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Barrios said. “Because of social media I know a lot of organizations have received a lot of donations. People get information for petitions and protests too, so yes, social media is a big thing especially now. We are living in a virtual world.”
Twenty-three percent of adult social media users said they had “changed their views about a political or social issue because of something they saw on social media in the past year.”
The power of social media is reflected in a July Pew Research Center survey of adult social media users in the U.S. Twenty-three percent of participants said they had “changed their views about a political or social issue because of something they saw on social media in the past year,” many citing BLM as an example. This number is up from 15 percent when the survey was last conducted in 2018.
The relationship between social media and the BLM Movement hasn’t been entirely positive. As speaking out in the name of the movement became more commonplace on sites like Instagram and Twitter in June, performative activism, or activism that is done to improve one’s social standing rather than to genuinely further a cause, became a talking point among social media users. For some, the sudden uptick in public allyship once the movement held the spotlight was cause for concern.
“Not even a couple months after George Floyd was killed, the pandemonium and outrage died down and many people went back to living their normal lives, no longer speaking out on BLM,” PCC sophomore Cianna Borrego said.
“BLM isn’t just a decoration for your bio, REAL PEOPLE are dying everyday from this bullsh*t and the way some of y’all treat it like a trend disgusts me.”
This concern manifested in numbers later in the year, as a September Pew study reported that the percentage of white Americans who expressed some degree of support for the BLM Movement had dropped to 55 percent after hitting 67 percent in June.
“BLM isn’t just a decoration for your bio, REAL PEOPLE are dying everyday from this bullsh*t and the way some of y’all treat it like a trend disgusts me,” @Ebonee_ said on Twitter Dec. 7.
Social media can be like a game of telephone — something may go out with an original intent that gets lost as it’s reshared again and again. This is only exacerbated by the internet’s obsession with trends, tags, and challenges; when a social cause goes viral, more users become inclined to speak out about it regardless of their knowledge on the subject. Platoon Senior Artist Campaign Manager Brianna Agyemang and Jamilla Thomas of Atlantic Records posted #TheShowMustBePaused in June, calling upon fellow members of the music industry to “take a beat for an honest, reflective, and productive conversation” about BLM.
Other music executives followed suit, but when the movement fell into the hands of the general public it transformed into #BlackoutTuesday, which called on participants to post a blank black square in support of BLM. As this leg of the movement took on a life of its own, it attracted criticism. A common complaint was that the social media moment drowned out important information pertaining to BLM, instead replacing these already repressed voices with more silence.
Activist Feminista Jones shared her criticisms on social media in June, tweeting that after seven years the BlackLivesMatter hashtag had accumulated a near 12 million usages, only for it to gain millions more on BlackoutTuesday that flooded out years of content. Others cited the fact that #BlackoutTuesday was used over 28 million times, pulling well ahead of the BLM hashtag, as evidence of performative activism.
“BLM said ‘this is our name and anybody who cares about Black Lives Matter has a right to that name.’ Social media is freely used, it’s not a branded thing, no one can say that they own it. I think only time will tell if it waters down [BLM’s] message.”
“The BLM Movement’s philosophy is no set leadership, where everybody takes control in their own city. This has both hurt and helped them,” Annang said. “BLM said ‘this is our name and anybody who cares about Black Lives Matter has a right to that name.’ Social media is freely used, it’s not a branded thing, no one can say that they own it. I think only time will tell if it waters down [BLM’s] message, but I think right now the freedom that anybody can hold ties to their message is a good thing. But, there’s unintended consequences.”
In Annang’s experience running the social media for the Pasadena NAACP, the benefits of these sites outweigh these consequences.
“With every plus there’s a minus and there’s going to be somebody who’s going to use [social media] to piggyback onto things,” Annang said.
To ensure a meaningful social media presence, Annang offers a word of advice to users: do your research.
“The responsibility falls on the researcher because if you get to Destination Stupid, that’s because you traveled on that path.”
“Social media is about emotion, so I might read something and go ‘oh my god, that is terrible’ but then I go and do some research and I might find that there’s a different side to every story,” Annang said. “The responsibility falls on the researcher because if you get to Destination Stupid, that’s because you traveled on that path. Sometimes on social media you’ve gotta pause — if this thing really bothers you, if this thing makes you really want to say something, then do you research and make sure that what you’re responding with makes sense and will further the cause.”
Regardless of the public’s willingness to continue making Black lives a priority, today and everyday, Annang believes that this leg of the movement will be persistent.
“What you won’t have is what normally happens, where we leave you alone,” Annang said. “I think those days are over.”
