These Celebrities Are Supporting 'Blackout Tuesday' on Instagram
There's a good chance that if you've been online today, you've been seeing people share black squares on their Instagram and Twitter profiles in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, including a number of actors, musicians and athletes. Actors Terry Crews and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, football players DeMarcus Ware and Tom Brady, and strongman Hafthor "The Mountain" Bjornsson are among the famous faces taking part in Blackout Tuesday.
Blackout Tuesday was created by Atlantic Records executive Jamila Thomas and Platoon senior artist campaign manager Brianna Agyemang as a way for the music industry to "intentionally disrupt the work week" by halting all official marketing and promo. However, rather than being a tools-down protest, Agyemang and Thomas wanted to create something that would uplift black voices and foster all-important conversations about representation and equality across the industry.
"The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominantly from Black art," Agyemang and Thomas wrote. "Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations and their partners who benefit from the effort, struggles and successes of Black people accountable."
The campaign, which is using the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused, was quickly adopted by social media users outside of the music business who wanted to express their support for Black Lives Matter in the wake of the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests all around the country.
However, a number of people have been incorrectly including the #BlackLivesMatter tag in their posts, meaning that activists who were using that tag to stay abreast of what was happening at demonstrations on the ground were instead faced with a long scrolling feed of black squares, as opposed to useful content or information.
Users who posted the wrong tag have been criticized for prioritizing the performative nature of posting over taking the time to understand the purpose of the campaign, and worse, suppressing the very voices that Blackout Tuesday was intended to amplify.
If you want to participate in Blackout Tuesday, please remember to avoid using the Black Lives Matter hashtag. And in addition to sharing a black square, consider donating to organizations such as the Minnesota Freedom Fund or Communities United Against Police Brutality.
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