The Issue of Performative Activism, Take #2

Last December, I revisited a couple of my “Let’s Talk About…” commentary blogs, and I decided to rewrite them into professional essays. With these revisions, I think I accomplished my goal of expressing my thoughts on the issues I discussed in a more eloquent way, so I wanted to share one! This was originally titled “Let’s Talk About…The Social Responsibility of Online Influencers.”

In 2020, our world was introduced to an inordinate number of tragedies, but unlike the world-shifting global pandemic, the campaign to end racial inequality and police brutality is nothing new. Black Lives Matter is considered one of the largest social movements in the history of the United States, but the seeds of the network of advocates were sown from the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media in July of 2013. Outraged and profoundly horrified by the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of a black teenager named Trayvon Martin, a woman named Alicia Garza, who works as domestic worker rights organizer in Oakland, California, published a series of Facebook posts called, “A Love Letter to Black People.” It is in this series that she expressed, “…black people, I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.” Patrisse Cullors, an anti-police violence organizer in Los Angeles, replied to the post saying, “#BlackLivesMatter.” With the support of their mutual friend Opal Tometi, these two women created the movement, though the hashtag did not begin to trend until the murder of Michael Brown in 2014. Within three weeks of Michael’s death, “#BlackLivesMatter” was being used on average almost sixty thousand times every single day. In late November, a grand jury decided to not charge Darren Wilson with the murder of Michael Brown, and within those subsequent weeks, the hashtag was used over 1.7 million times.

Inspired by the 1960’s civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter organizers have revolutionized advocacy and activism with their strategic protesting strategies, using social media to garner widespread media coverage, and publically challenging and demanding support from politicians. After the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, at the hands of police officers Derek Chauvin, Alexander Kueng, Thomas Layne, and Tou Thao, the movement saw what is often described as a revival. However, as many black activists have said, Black Lives Matter never “fizzled out” for them as it did for the nonblack allies who associated themselves with the movement in its initial formation. An accurate description would be that during this turbulent time in our world, a great deal nonblack people took the opportunity to educate themselves on the issue of racial inequality against black people, more influencers and celebrities spoke out against the injustices, and therefore, the movement received more social backing. White people in systemic positions of privilege are recognizing the disconnect between the way they and people of color are treated in the world, and an unprecedented amount are publicly acknowledging this and responsibly using their platforms to build support for the movement.

Unfortunately in the wake of “#BlackLivesMatter”’s surge on social media in recent months, those genuinely advocating for change are being met with a whirlwind of what are known as performative activists. Wikipedia states, “Performative activism is a pejorative term referring to activism done to increase one’s social capital rather than because of one’s devotion to a cause. It is often associated with surface-level activism, referred to as slacktivism.” In this new age of technology, people are able to effortlessly hide behind their screens and project an idealized image of themselves, and this has resulted in a number of people showing up for black people in convenient, online settings. One might recognize someone like this in their own life when they compare the way this person acts on social media to the way they do in real life. On their Instagram story, they firmly state that they will not tolerate any kind of ignorance towards the black community, but they are silent when presented with people making harmful judgments about black people and the movement as a whole. They leave supportive comments on black activists’ posts, but do not correct their nonblack friends for using racial slurs. They share links to petitions that they have not even taken the time to sign themselves. 

Performative activists want the positive attention they are sure to receive from feigning a “woke” appearance on social media, but are neither educated enough nor willing to defend black people against those who try to justify and/or dismiss the hardships they have endured. They pat themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum, because that is all a white person needs to do in order to be deemed a good person by our society. To lay it out simply, if someone chooses to continue a friendship with someone who supports the countering movement All Lives Matter and makes no attempts to educate that person, they are not an ally. If they speak on behalf of the community instead of bringing attention to the thousands of statements made by black people online, they are not an ally. If they sit by idly while their peers make racist comments, they are not an ally. If they support influencers who have been radio silent about the movement, they are not an ally. If they think people can “agree to disagree” about racism, they are not an ally. They are not an ally, and others must learn to stop titling them as shut because the world has conditioned people to think white people deserved to be praised for doing anything remotely positive.

Why are nonblack people being applauded for their activism at all? Why is it that when some, mostly other nonblack people, see a content creator retweet a single link to a petition after months of noiselessness about the movement, their innate response is to compliment them? Why is it acceptable for these musicians and actors with net-worths of tens of millions of dollars to do nothing more than like one comment saying, “Interact if you support BLM!”? Why are people still embracing this idea that white people deserve to be thanked for doing the absolute least to support a movement fighting for equality and justice? Advocating for black lives is not a skill or favorable quality, it is a very basic action that any moral person would do. Respecting the minimalist idea that black people are human beings who deserve to experience life not plagued by constant fear and shrouded in danger is nothing exceptional. More importantly, why do some nonblack people act like they’re doing the black community a favor when they take the slightest action to help?

Performative activism can be incredibly damaging for a movement like Black Lives Matter that is rightfully demanding significant and important change. False allyship does nothing to aid black advocates and ultimately serves as a deterrent, and those who are pushing a facade of caring about the movement in order to gain social standing must take accountability for this. It is a necessity that they educate themselves on how to be effective allies and take those steps–not because they want to save face, but because they understand that is their obligation as a person to help their fellow human being when they are faced with grave injustices.