The death of the African American George Floyd in the hands of a Minneapolis police officer has caused quite a raucous around the world. It has reawakened sentiments of racial discrimination and maltreatment amongst the African-American community in the United States of America.
Different personalities around the world reacted to the act in different ways, showing solidarity with the African-American community and to George Floyd’s family.
In America, the music industry decided to give themselves a blackout break to mourn the death of George Floyd. The virtual protest which was termed Blackout Tuesday was started by music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Jamila who wrote on a site that Tuesday, June 2 would be a day to pause all business and take a stand against the “racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard” the movement would take the form of people posting all black pictures on the Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms.
The trend has been heavily endorsed by the Black Lives Matter movement, and more people have continued to join.
American celebrities like Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, Drake, and Britney Spears have been some of the most popular celebrities that have chosen to go dark on social media for Blackout Tuesday.
Leading the Blackout Tuesday Rihanna shared a black post on her Instagram with the caption “We ain’t buying st!!! and we aint selling st neither!! gang gang! #BLACKOUTTUESDAY AF!!!’.
Britney Spears explained: “What the world needs now is love. My heart bleeds for my friends in the black community … and for everything going on in our country. Right now I think we all should do what we can to listen … learn … do better … and use our voices for good”.
Some people have however not bought into the idea and have criticized the trend on social media. Some say it is time to spread awareness and not just literally “blackout” social media feeds. There are arguments that now more than ever, is when communication shouldn’t be blacked out by these celebrities with huge followings.
Blackout Tuesday
The idea of Blackout Tuesday is to fill social media sites (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) with black squares, freeing up the time usually dedicated to social media for people to educate themselves on the Black Lives Matter movement.
