CONTINUING THE MOVEMENT
IN THE WAKE OF THE 2020 ACTIVIST MOVEMENTS, SOCIAL MEDIA HAS BECOME A PLATFORM FOR ALL FORMS OF ACTIVISM WORDS: Jailene Aponte, Meghan Beilfuss, Emily Brown, Niko Krajisnik, Humza Mohiuddin, Kayla Oberholtzer, Gabriella Simkus and Della Steif
“I DID BLACKOUT TUESDAY BECAUSE EVERYBODY WAS DOING IT AT THE TIME, BUT THEN I EDUCATED MYSELF ON THE ACTUAL SEVERITY OF THE TOPIC.” Aniela Gorski (10)
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his past month, we witnessed the Kyle Rittenhouse trial addressing the killing of Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, WI on Aug. 25, 2020. As quickly the media moves on with events, we notice the drop off of student awareness through the lack of support in social media posts “People would make a trend out of Black Lives Matter. People would post about it once, and then never say anything again. It made me feel upset. Black people are still suffering from the hands of injustice. That doesn’t just stop, therefore those who see it as a trend or have made it seem like one are shameful,” Jada Jones (11) said. Activism is the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. On the flip side of the coin, performative activism is referring to activism done to increase one’s social capital rather than because of one’s devotion to a cause. “I did Blackout Tuesday because everybody was doing it at the time, but then I educated myself on the actual severity of the topic. [I understood] the situation that was actually going on,” Aniela Gorski (10) said. Fundraisers, organizations and groups like Black Lives Matter use Instagram to post pictures and updates about their organization. Others will take their own pictures and use hashtags, which to students like Zaynah Khajo (9), isn’t enough. “I see some people that go just to take pictures and be like ‘Oh look, I’m going to a protest!’ and not actually helping at all Even if you can’t go to a protest, you can still raise awareness about it to create more of an impact,” Khaja said. Awareness and taking action are the goals of these movements when sharing on social media. With these new aspects, some feel as if a standard has been created on what
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they should post. “I mean sometimes [it’s okay to spread awareness online] but not as much as going out and going to protests. Yeah, it makes people aware of it, but it’s not really doing anything,” Hamzeh Hindi (11) said. Events like the Australian Wildfires and Palestine’s conflict were talked about heavily by the media for a period of time and then dropped off later on even though the events were still currently happening. to ask themselves if just how far they have to go to call themselves an activist. “There is certain topics that are happening in Muslim countries, so then as a Muslim myself, I feel the pressure to raise awareness about it. If I don’t, I’m not helping my people, so then there’s that type of pressure,” Khaja said. Along with the pressure to spread awareness on social media, students like Tyler Gagliardi (10) feel they need to post or say things that apply to the subject at hand. They feel like they could be criticized by their peers or feel like outcasts if they do not. “I do not want to be canceled. If I do something not supposedly ‘good’ then I lose everything, everyone would just hate me,” Gagliardi said. The Blackout Tuesday square took Instagram by storm in June in an effort to help raise awareness for racial injustice after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others. This was a way of showing support through social media that anyone with an Instagram profile could participate in. “In order to spread awareness, I posted a square and information regarding why we did students it and ways to help as well. I posted raise information about protests that their were around my area and about fists to African Americans who were support wrongly accused and faced police blm. a brutality. I did it because I felt raised like just posting a black square fist has wasn’t enough. People need to be become informed on why, and the events a symbol that led to this as well. Also, by of power posting about the protests going and hope on brought out more people and in the prepared those who were going” movement. Jones said.
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