It has been quite admirable to witness the way that the world has come together to support the black community by supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Social media platforms of all forms are crawling with posts, threads, stories and hashtags to promote the movement.
Individuals of all ethnicities are refusing to tolerate the systematic racism that the black community has been forced to endure since the beginning of time any longer.
A smaller movement was created in honor of individuals who have been wrongfully murdered by law enforcement officials, such as George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, referred to as Blackout Tuesday. It was centered around bringing people in the world of the entertainment industry to a standstill, by choice.
Although Blackout Tuesday was started with the purpose of honoring those we have lost, it is quite counterproductive to the Black Lives Matter movement. We've been retweeting tweets, continuing 'say his/her/their name' threads and countless other Black Lives Matter posts, making sure that the issue is made clear, and that the message is spread across the world.
But now with the participation in Blackout Tuesday, timelines are filled with a black square to commemorate those we have come to lose.
Even though it only lasted for 24 hours, the Black Lives Matter movement was brought to a standstill for 24 hours.
There are many people who believe that these 24 hours were wasted, that Blackout Tuesday is just clouding the bigger picture, which is the Black Lives Matter movement. A question that is being asked is this:
"How is a blank square more effective than visual and text aided information for direct knowledge?"
There are some people who might not have been fully or adequately informed about Blackout Tuesday, resulting in them removing their black square from social media.
The time and energy that an individual took to upload and possibly remove their Blackout Tuesday post could have been poured into the Black Lives Matter movement.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with commemorating and honoring those that we have lost thus far. But the fight for those we could still lose is so much greater—more so than ever before.
