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#BLACKOUTDAY
On Friday March 6, 2015, A social media campaign was launched not only to promote but to also celebrate the “beauty of blackness.” This campaign was titled “BlackOut Day” and was created by the following “Tumblrfamous” bloggers: T’von expect-thegreatest, Marissa Rei Blckoutqueen and Nukirk whiteswillneverknow.
T’von says he grew tired of not seeing enough normal people of color on his Tumblr feed, which led him to the effort to increase the dialogue and presence of black people on social media.
BlackOut Day stormed the Twitter and Tumblr news feeds with selfies and photos of normal everyday black people with the hash tag “BlackOut”.
To prove his point, he google’d the phrase “beautiful face” and the image results were mostly of people of fair skin. There were little to no images of people with a skin complexion darker than an olive skin tone
Over 160k mentions of BlackOut Day were posted on Twitter by the afternoon of March 6th.
“I’m really sick and tired of seeing the Continued on
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'European standard of beauty' prevail," T’von said. "It’s past time for the beauty of black people to be showcased." The purpose was also to help fight the negative stereotypes, connotations and stigmas black people have suffered with to this day and through out history. Francesca Ramsey, a YouTube guru, said her most recent video, “BlackOut Day was an opportunity to say that despite the things we encounter in the world around us, we love who we are and we are going to uplift each other.” The trending hash tag was even paired with phrases such as “Black is beautiful
EVERYDAY” and “I love my skin.” The social media movement even received attention from celebrities such as Gabrielle Union, Jackee Harry and Janelle Monae. Creators of BlackOut Day aim to continue celebrating blackness through open dialogue and monthly themes. They would like for their followers of this movement to showcase their natural beauty and talents to help build a “strong network of encouragement and support.” A social media campaign such as BlackOut Day is one that Clear Essence is a huge supporter of because
natural black beauty is what Clear Essence promotes with our skin care products. For further information on future events and campaign efforts, visit their website Blackoutday.org
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