This video encourages people to examine how
they are contributing or not contributing to black lives matter and other social movements. One way a lot of people are getting involved
is by uplifting and supporting the voices of creators of color. And I’ve been a recipient of some of that
support, and I just want to take this time to show my gratitude. All the new subscribers, followers, members
and patrons, yall are the best. Videos that cover intense political topics
like this one are pretty much disqualified from receiving ad revenue, but thankfully,
I have a sponsor for this video, which allows me the freedom to make videos about the things
that really interest me. And another way you all can support me is
by checking out our sponsor Raycon. Stick around the end of the video to find
out more. So, a few weeks ago I woke up and looked at
Instagram and it was all black. Hi, I’m T1J. [WEIRD VOICEOVER:] Follow me! Everyone was uploading blank black squares
to social media, essentially to espress solidarity with black people and the black lives matter
movement, in the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breona Taylor, as
well as the general perpetual violence and discrimination against black people in America. Each post was labeled with the hashtag #BlackOutTuesday
Blackout Tuesday began as an event called “The Show Must Be Paused”, organized by
Jamila Thomas, and Brianna Agyemang, two black female music executives. Their goal was to pause business as usual,
starting with the music industry, and force people to pay attention to and have conversations
about these injustices. The Show Must Paused did not suggest symbolic
gestures on social media; in fact it mainly suggested three things: 1. To stop business as usual and begin to have
these difficult conversations about racism and police brutality. 2. To donate your time and money to the families
of these victims as well as to causes fighting injustice, and 3. To take a break, if you have been personally
affected by these events and need a minute to work on your mental health. There was nothing about black squares. So anyway, I scrolled on Instagram for a bit,
and then the posts eventually started to change. People would upload the black square, or they'd
like edit the post that they already uploaded., but then they would change it to say, “when
you upload your black square, don’t use #blacklivesmatter, because its drowning out
a hashtag that may actually be useful to people at this time!.” By the end of the day, half the people on
my feed were kind of bickering about the correct way to post nothing on Instagram. And it just seemed overall that this was just
a silly, failed exercise. And I think we see this kinda thing a lot. And I’m not saying it’s necessarily bad. The internet has made it so easy to communicate
and share ideas. The technology we have available to make things
happen is remarkable. So I don’t want to come off as saying that
just because something is easy, means it bad or not worth doing. You just have to kind of make sure you’re
actually doing something. Now I think symbolic gestures can be fine. A popular one in our culture is the 'moment
of silence.' Often done in reverence to the recently deceased. In fact on BlackoutTuesday, many creators,
companies, and outlets produced 9 minutes of silence or minimalized programming, reflecting
the length of time that a police officer pressed his knee against George Floyd’s neck, ultimately
resulting in his death. And in other type of media, the moment of
silence was simulated by images or posts, like blank black squares. But it’s important to understand that Thomas
and Agyemang did not call for a ‘moment of silence.’ They very clearly demanded conversations and
actions. So I think symbolic gestures can be fine,
as long as that’s not all you’re willing to do. Now it truly does seem like something unique
is happening right now, I can’t deny that. But you shouldn’t blame black people if
some of us are a little skeptical. This ain’t the first time an unarmed black
person has been killed by the police. A lot of people say that it’s a perfect
storm of all these high profile killings happening within days of each other, the continuing
lunacy of Donald Trump, and the stir craziness caused by the coronavirus, and maybe that’s
true, but it does suck that it took all that for people to even pretend to care for more
than a week. And we’re in a situation where saying black
lives matter is less controversial than it ever has been. (Not that it ever should have been). But we’ve even got brands and corporations
tweeting out "black lives matter" and stuff, it’s actually become a good PR move. And I haven’t kept up with all of these
companies who are tweeting out blacklivesmatter, and whether or not they’re actually getting
involved or donating money, and I honestly don’t really care. At the end of the day, I expect businesses
to make the moves that makes them look good, and/or makes them the most money. And to be clear, unless they’re being obviously
unethical, I’m generally okay with that. But like, fuckin Pop-Tarts is not a person. I don’t give a shit if Pop-Tarts thinks
black lives matter. Sure a person runs their social media, but
that person represents the brand in those tweets, we have no idea what their personal
beliefs or their personal disposition is. Pop-Tarts specifically is pretty creepy because
whoever runs the account tweets in the first person, like you know most brands say “We/Us”,
but not Pop-Tarts, so I always imagine like an anthropomorphic Pop Tart speaking. It just weirds me out. Maybe that’s just me. And sure, people run these companies, and
I would love it if those people publicly came forward and donated and protested with the
common folks. Kinda doubt it, but it would be cool. But if the only one actually saying Black
Lives Matter is the brand “Pop-Tarts” --literally means nothing to me. Anyway, my point is that, it’s really easy
these days to just type out a hashtag, or upload a black square. It is socially acceptable, and it's not brave
or groundbreaking anymore. Overall, that might be a good thing, the more
popular social justice ideas are the more pressure is put on the people who have the
power lift barriers to social justice. But, it could also be a double edged sword. If “wokeness” is trendy, then people will
signal wokeness simply for social clout, which could have the effect of drowning out the
voices of people who are actually calling for real life action. A term that gets thrown around every now and
then is “virtue signaling.” Usually it's meant to describe people who
are pretending to be outraged about political or social issues, not because they particularly
care about them, but because they want to make themselves look righteous or agreeable. I think it’s fairly cynical, I don’t think
people are going around posting about political and social issues and saying things that they
don’t actually believe, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t also doing it to publicly
display their moral righteousness, or because they don’t want to be called out for being
silent. The Blackout Tuesday thing reminds me of that
whole thing a few years ago where white people suggested wearing Safety Pins as a sign of
solidarity against racism. I think reactions to this were mixed, but
I was never a fan of it personally. It’s like you put on a safety-pin and all
of sudden I’m supposed to be convinced that you understand racism. I’m sure most of everyone who wore the pin
believes they’re an ally, but you could put in the pin and still go home and still
clutch your purse whenever you see a black man on the street. You can put the pin on when you’re in public
but still go to the office and refuse to hire Lakeisha even though her resume is just as
good as Karen’s. Anybody can put on a safety pin. And anybody can black out their Instagram
for a day, that tells me nothing about who are you are and what you understand about
the world or what you’re doing to help make it better for marginalized people. In fact, I specifically saw blackouttuesday
posts from people who I have previously seen be racially insensitive. All these things seem to do is make you feel
good that you did something, if not to actively encourage people to believe that you’re
not racist. And I understand, none of us want to be remembered
as the person who did nothing. But if all you did was wear a safety pin,
or post a hashtag or upload black square. I’m sorry to tell you, you did nothing. Now listen sometimes these gestures can actually
help. For example, when you go on twitter, a lot
of people have their pronouns listed in their bio. At first glance this seems useful for trans
and non-binary people, because our society is very used to associating certain pronouns
with certain things, like the way people look or dress, or the way they express themselves. So for people who might defy or complicate
our understanding of what pronouns to use, it seems useful to just tell people up front
which ones to use. So at first, I figured there's no reason for
me to put my pronouns in my bio, because I don’t think I have ever dealt with someone
calling me the wrong pronoun, and that’s probably the case for the majority of cis
people. But I did notice that a lot of cis people
put their pronouns in their bio. And I suspected that this was just more virtue
signaling and performative activism. I thought they just wanted an easy way to
signal to the world that they weren’t transphobic, without having to actually do any work or
introspection But after having conversations and asking
questions, I learned that cis people putting their pronouns in their bio helps normalize
not assuming people’s gender, which has obvious benefits for trans
and non-binary people. And I understand that different trans and
nonbinary people might have different ideas about how this works. That was just my basic understanding from
the conversations that I had. So I put my pronouns in my bio. He/Him by the way. So sometimes things that seem performative
can be actually turn out to be helpful. Other things, like art, are inherently performative. So we might be tempted to dismiss things like
these murals that are popping up across the country, is it just more symbolic wokeness
that doesn’t actually get anything done? And maybe there’s a point there, these kinds
of murals cost a lot of time, money, and human participation, and you might wonder if all
those resources could be more effectively spent. But I personally think there is a place for
art within activism. In my opinion, a giant sign that says Black
Lives Matter and Defund The Police right down the street from the White House, is pretty
powerful. Even outside of DC, I think these murals and
other kinds of art can be potent and moving, as all art can. In other words, just like everything else,
it’s f**king complicated. But as allies, it’s important to educate
yourselves, pay attention and listen because that’s probably the only way you’ll know. The safety pin, as far as I know, was made
up by white people in the U.K. to show solidarity with people of color after Brexit, and was
later adopted by people in the U.S. And Blackout Tuesday happened because people
misunderstood the original goals of The Show Must Be Paused. Both situations seem like a failure to engage
and listen. Now I’ve seen and heard a lot of people
say that they’re finally ready to look within themselves and figure out how they can change
and be better. And I understand the impulse to do whatever
you can that seems to help or seems to show solidarity, especially if it’s easy. And at the end of the day, that's fine, most
of those things are kinda whatever. I mean, you should definitely take a moment
to make sure the thing you’re doing isn’t actually hurting, and isn’t actually drowning
out other people’s voices. But the issue is, when we see all these black
squares, and all these hashtags, and all these Karen memes but we don’t also see people
educating themselves and others, having hard conversations, donating to relevant causes,
attending protests and rallies, and just in general being an active ally. A lot of people seem lost in terms of what
they’re supposed to do, but it’s like man, we’ve been screaming about this for
years. Google is free. There are people like me who make content
to try and help people think about race and racial situations in a more thoughtful way,
but in general, marginalized people can’t hold your hand through this. We’ve got enough on our plate. I think a lot of white people have gotten
used to being comfortable in a society that’s kind of set up to advantage them. Here’s the thing white folks, if you want
to be a part of this fight, you’re going to have to learn to be uncomfortable. You won’t ever be able to walk in another
person's shoes, but you should educate yourself about how our society systemically marginalizes
and attacks minorities, and you should constantly think about that, and that should make you
uncomfortable. And you should also constantly think about
how you contribute to and benefit from these very systems. And that should make you uncomfortable. Discomfort is good, it inspires change and
growth If you’d rather not be uncomfortable and
just want to post a hashtag and go about your day, that’s your prerogative, but I hope
you understand that the fact you’re even able to do that is evidence of the very privilege
that results from all these systemic problems. The very same privilege that makes you much
less likely to be shot in the back or choked to death by a police officer. Lot of folks just don’t have that luxury. But like I said, these are undoubtedly unique
times, and even though it’s taken us too long to get here, I am proud of those who
are finally holding themselves to a higher standard and are finally committed to taking
a look in themselves and see how they can change and how they can help make the world
better for black people, and marginalized people in general. Just keep in mind, this is a bumpy road. You might get some Likes on social media,
you might get some black to raise their fists at you, but this aint gonna be easy. And we’ll see how down for the cause everybody
is when they truly have to step outside of their comfort zone. DAS JUS ME DOE. What do you think? Thanks for watching, and thanks to this video’s
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I’m gonna be thinking about the sentient pop tart that supports BlackLivesMatter for a very long time. Thanks Kevin