Hey Sweeties,
On Tuesday 2nd June 2020 across social media, but more specifically Instagram, personal photographs and messaging were replaced with black squares by a majority of users, me included.
Documented as Black Out Tuesday, this was so that us uninformed folk could shut up and allow those with real insight and information about Black Lives Matter to be heard.
Facing up to reality
How are we in a situation in 2020, where we have to go through special measures to elevate minority voices? And why does it take witnessing such horrific scenes in the US to finally make us stop and reflect?
But we are all guilty of not listening to these powerful voices enough. I spent Black Out Tuesday working out how I can be a better supporter of black and minority ethnic people because until then my effort was poor and I don’t mind confessing that to you here.
I don’t often take the time to go digging for information, I mostly consume what the news and my social feeds show me during a 5-10 minute scroll and anything that does crop up of interest with a link I’ll click it. But that’s not often about black and minority cultures.
Did it happen if it wasn’t on social?
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t and don’t share the causes and things I support privately, and I don’t often join in on movements and hot-headed trends on social media. But Tuesday was different.
Tuesday was a really difficult one to navigate on the basis that if you weren’t seen to support Black Lives Matter, you weren’t supporting it. And if you did by taking part in Black Out Tuesday, you could be dismissed for jumping on the bandwagon and for the action to be considered empty if it wasn’t followed up with anything.
(A wonderful read by the way, please check it out).
White people needed this
Although Black Out Tuesday was mostly just for Instagram, that platform is low following for me hence why my stories were quiet (which to be fair isn’t unusual on any given day). For opinions, my own and others, I use Twitter, and this is where between work tasks I spent my time absorbing, retweeting and liking Black Lives Matter content and to say it was overwhelming, distressing and powerful at once is an understatement.
My personal feeling as a white woman is that yes it is a disgrace that black and minority ethnic voices aren’t routinely heard with the same volume and weighting as others, and yes it is shocking that on Tuesday we finally woke up to this reality but it needed to happen. We all needed a shock to the system to change our behavior going forward.
What I learnt about Black History at School
Nothing.
I don’t know about your experience, but at school my history lessons taught me about the Tudors, Victorians, Kings and Queens, a few medieval wars and the Plague. From memory, (at my school) I don’t think you studied the first or second World War unless you took history at GCSE and/or A-Level.
I saw a great tweet that summed up the above paragraph after I had written it perfectly –
The only reason that British white people think we are less racist than Americans is because our history syllabus is: 1066, some Kings, SKIP THE RACIST BITS, The Big Wars We Won.
An adult education
The curriculum during my school days just didn’t inform or teach about black history and at the time I wouldn’t have been conscious enough to have challenged it. And the same actually can be said for learning about feminism which for me wasn’t until university.
I didn’t properly experience other cultures until I moved to London to pursue dental nurse training, whereby my friends, colleagues, neighbors and the city overall opened my eyes.
I am thankful that already my son’s exposure to other cultures is greater than what mine was throughout my whole childhood… and he’s only a year old!
How will I change going forward?
- I have made a conscious effort to follow a number of Black Lives Matter hashtags, so I see and support new content every day.
- I have written to my MP to protest the withholding of a report on the effect Covid-19 is having on BAME communities, amid worries around current events. And for the immediate suspension of UK sales of teargas, riot shields and rubber bullets to the US. This was surprisingly simple to do through the Writetothem website.
- I have signed petitions
- Earlier in the week as the protesting was gaining momentum, I made a few book purchases which I will talk about another time, as well as continuing to add to my list of children’s literature about race and equality for my son once he is a little bit older.
- I will ensure that the charities, organisations and causes I support not only continues, but consciously diversifies.
- For example, I was made aware this week about a charity called The Garden Classroom that focuses on providing city children the opportunity to experience the outdoors and its benefits. It’s these kinds of projects I want to get behind in greater numbers.
I am sure there will be a number of posts similar to this being released online this week and probably much like the black square on Instagram, people may roll their eyes at this and no worries for doing so. For me I need to ensure I am held accountable and continue to practice what I preach.
The power of change is within us, but I am given some extra hope this week that through a combined effort we are making bigger, stronger steps towards making it happen.
Until next time x
