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2020-06-02Blackout Tuesday
HIST30060 Despite the global pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement saw a resurgence after the murder of American George Floyd in May of this year. Protests were sparked all over the world, pushing for the action to end the systematic racism experienced by people of colour (POC) and indigenous people all around the globe. I took this screen recording on my phone when, on June 2nd of this year, people all over the world participated in what was called ‘Blackout Tuesday’, where they would post black squares to their instagram account in an effort to project the voices of those who experience the systematic racism. I follow many celebrities on instagram, which you can see in this video many participated in the movement. However, the effort was quickly criticised, as the masses of posts featuring the black square began to dominate the Black Lives Matter (BLM) hashtag on all social media, an important tool that had been used by many to organise and publicise protests all over the world. Instead of the intended goal of projecting black voices over their white counterparts, the black squares instead silenced the important information that was being spread through the hashtag, doing the opposite of the intended effect.