A Black Square: Why Performative Activism is Harmful

Priya Sharma, Staff Writer

Blackout Tuesday was an event in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on June 2nd, 2020

On June 2nd, 2020, Instagram looked different. Instead of the social distancing graduation pictures, or social distancing beach outings, or social distancing backyard selfies, there were a slew of black screens. 

“#theshowmustbepaused.”

“#NOJUSTICENOPEACE”

“#JUSTICEFORGEORGEFLOYD”

“#BLACKLIVESMATTER”

These hashtags took over Instagram for a day. It was a trend—everyone, whether or not they really knew what they were saying, posted a black square. The sentiment behind it was there—Black Americans have been consistently murdered at a disparaging rate for the past several years, and finally, people acknowledged that pain, frustration, and suffering. However, did posting a black square actually accomplish anything?

The posts brought attention to the issue, of course. It made an impact by showing a united front against police brutality. But it was not enough. Posting a black square was performative more than anything; a black square created no true change when discussing such a serious issue. A black square did not sign any petitions, donate any money, or attend any protests. It showed a sense of solidarity, but the time has passed for solidarity, and has come for action. Regardless of “good intentions” behind a post, if there is no action to accompany such “activism,” it is ineffective.

Also known as “slacktivism,” this performance has become increasingly relevant in the past few months, as the Black Lives Matter movement came to the forefront of the media once again in late May. Posting a black square has come to represent the issue of performative activism. People repost, retweet, and share hashtags, but how much knowledge and intention is actually behind these acts? 

The problem lies in its name—performative activism. Performative activism is not to show support for a cause because it aligns with your personal beliefs, but because it will make one seem more knowledgeable and promote their own egos whilst not doing enough for the movement to actually create a connection with it. The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS describes the term “slacktivist,” as “posits that people who support a cause by performing simple measures are not truly engaged or devoted to making a change.” Performative activism holds no real social weight—which is why it is so toxic. If people simply speak without any meaning behind their words, the voices of those who have tangible things to say  are drowned out, and eventually, the meaning behind the movement is lost. Actions speak louder than words; many say they “support a movement,” but when push comes to shove, they take no real  action towards solving systemic problems at the heart of the cause.

Performance activism is more harmful than helpful. The public is becoming more aware of the issues concerning human rights, such as the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China, voting disenfranchisement in Belarus, and the expansion of child labor in South and Southeast Asia, and more people talking about an issue is better than no people talking about an issue. However, the lack of knowledge behind the posts which perpetuate performative activism promotes the spread of misinformation and limits the amount of actual change which can occur, because the meaning behind the words and the posts is lost. There is a lack of sincerity which pushes the initiative, and that lack of sincerity brings others not to care as well.

Using social media to help inform others is not ill-intentioned. However, social media, or more specifically, Instagram, primarily sends such posts to those who share similar interests. For example, Instagram’s algorithm works in such a way that most of the people who view a particular Instagram story are likely to agree with it. The people who are more likely to be unaware of certain issues won’t see these posts, because the posts don’t necessarily pertain to their interests. 

Rather than re-posting, listen. Reposting something on Instagram titled “Ten Ways to Help Muslims in China,” doesn’t ensure that 1) anyone will actually read what you post, and 2)  anyone will take any sort of action on the issue, besides maybe reposting. Instead, listen to the voices of BIPOC (Black, Indeginous, People of Color), and other groups which are being disadvantaged. Read what you repost-learn about how YOU can help. It is futile to continually hope for others to take action, and is more important to recognize how you, yourself, can take action.

The issue of performative action bleeds into corporate America as well. At the same time as the phenomenon of performative activism on Instagram, companies were having press releases about how they “stand with the black community” and “there is no place for racism in (insert brand name here).”  However, in the ultimate sense of performativity, these companies, in most cases, ultimately do nothing. 

For example, Amazon, like many other companies, released a message about their “solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” when in actuality, many of Amazon’s policies have a history of hurting BIPOC communities. Amazon is a corporation which relies on relatively inexpensive labor, forces people into poverty and causes overwhelmingly BIPOC to remain in poverty. In 2018, Amazon had a plan to open a second headquarters in NYC, in an area which was primarily low-income BIPOC. This led to property prices skyrocketing in this area and many people who lived in this area could no longer afford to live there. Furthermore, Amazon once sold facial recognition technology to police officers--technology which was found to be ineffective and put BIPOC at risk. Clearly, Amazon has continually put Black lives at risk, so they cannot actively say that they are in solidarity with Black Live Matter.

How does what Amazon do relate to what we might repost on Instagram? Well, when we normalize performative activism and no action behind words, companies can be held to the same regard. Performative activism excuses everyone of any culpability, because it implies that words are enough. Performative activism tells us that action is unnecessary, and these ideas corrupt corporate America as well. And in a capitalist economy such as our own, the decisions of companies truly affect the lives of normal citizens. 

“Well, what can we do then?” we continually ask ourselves, a feeling of defeat wavering within us. In a society such as our own, it can feel as though none of our decisions hold any real weight. We are encouraged to have a sense of individuality, yet remove ourselves from decisions of the populus. We must recognize that, our decisions do affect others, even if they are decisions of the many rather than the few. It's hard to recognize that in our society our actions hold any influence, they do; where we choose to spend our money has significance. Money controls our society, and the only way any company will change is through economic accountability. If we all continue to ignore our obligations and morals when we spend money, no company will be encouraged to change. This type of message however, can only be given to those who are privileged enough to shop elsewhere If you have enough money to purchase clothes from a website other than Shein, you should. But at the same time, you should not shame people who may not have enough money to shop anywhere else. 

Performative activism comes from a place of privilege; privilege that certain legislature may not affect us, privilege to not take action, privilege to spend money somewhere else, but not doing so. The only way we can combat the disease of slacktivism is by putting our money where our mouth is-quite literally.