Many people find themselves obsessed with social media and following their favorite celebrities on various websites. I myself can easily name off ten celebrities that I cannot get over: the whole Kardashian clan, Ian Somerhalder, Viola Davis, Ashley Graham, Ariel Winter, and Iskra Lawrence. I find these celebrities to be such an inspiration for me because they each stand up for what they feel strongest about. They serve as icons for many of us to admire. However, upon following these celebrities, when I find myself looking through their tweets or post, there are always people who comment in ways that can be downright rude and unnecessary. Of course, there are the trolls, but then there are those people who remind the celebrity that they should be using their voice to speak up about the issues affecting society today.
Specifically, Kim Kardashian who is worth a whopping 140 million dollars. Along with her amazing financial accomplishments (ah-hum surpassing her sex tape drama), she has made a great life for herself. Not to mention having a last name that no one can go a day without hearing or reading about online. Kim is married and has children with Kanye West, a black rapper who is also extremely successful. So when people began rioting and advocating for the Black lives matter movement, many found themselves obsessed with trying to get Kim to advocate for the movement. However, rarely did Kim ever truly come out in public to advocate for the Black lives matter movement. And of course, this makes me question whether Kim even feels strongly about the movement, but I did not find myself too concerned for her speaking out. Now don’t get me wrong, this is Kim Kardashian, and many people, of course, don’t necessarily care much about her or what she has to say, but still she has a voice. She has influence. So I understand the outrage.
But when I am reading these comments, all I keep thinking is I wonder if these people are even advocating for the movement themselves. Many times people push on things they want others to achieve because they’re either afraid of doing it themselves or they’ve succumbed to a time where they think their voice wouldn’t even be powerful enough. Now, instead of trolling on celebrity’s pages complaining to them about using their voice for the greater good, we need to just get off the social media and use our own voices. I firmly believe that half the time celebrities will not even be reading those comments-- their publicist most likely does that for them. So instead of worrying about how such and such celebrity will use their voice or money, we need to believe in ourselves accomplishing what we want to change. There's no need to rely on celebrities when we have the power to change things ourselves.
