BlackoutTuesday Performative Activisms Issues

[Music]

remember summer 2020

when our social media was filled with

those little black boxes

i can’t forget them i remember waking up

on that hashtag blackout tuesday

checking my phone and seeing literally

hundreds of my followers

posting this little black square which i

found out was a minutiae portion of the

over 28 million

instagram users that posted this little

black square

now these were people that i had not

heard nor seen say a word

about the likes of george floyd

brianna taylor nina

popp tony mcdade

nor ahmad aubry rest in power

now this was irritating as i could tell

that these were people that had

no intent on creating justice or true

change

but they only wanted to appease their

conscience

and say i did something that i did my

part

but what did you do how many petitions

did you sign how much capital

did you donate to the cause how many

state reps

elected officials people in power did

you contact

and demand change how many policies

rules regulations did you analyze in

your spaces

how many streets were you in how did you

demand justice because you see my view

is this

non-black people have a very important

role in the fight against anti-black

racism

and in fact i could argue that it is

their issue to fight harder to dismantle

but when i see non-black people up in

arms

angry and up in uprisings over issues

that black people have been screaming

from the top of their lungs for years

upon years

decades upon decades and centuries upon

centuries

i had to be skeptical so this black

squares example

is indicative of a term called

performative activism

as it pertains to anti-black racism in

the words of manisha may

performative activism is the use of

words social media posts

or gestures that do more to appease

one’s own virtuous moral compass

than actually supporting the groups they

intend to support

so this is saying black lives matter on

your social media

just so that your black friend doesn’t

get upset with you

this is saying other white people are

trash while not analyzing your own

active

and complicit support or racist

narratives and structures

this is universities having listening

sessions

but never truly intended to listen to

the valid concerns

of marginalized people this is the

creation of task forces

that are only meant to triage

marginalize people’s concerns

and let them go onto that hill and die

this is saying

i’m anti-racist and saying

they shouldn’t protest like that

performative activism against anti-black

racism is the perception

of allies with black people yet

only benefits

non-black people in their pursuit to be

perceived

as a good person so let’s dive a little

deeper into this

i want to take a look at a university

that says that they care about black

students

this university highlights their black

students on social media posts

on admissions pamphlets and in

orientation where it matters right

this university says that our great

diversity is our strength

this university says black lives matter

so let’s pull the curtain back at this

university there are a little over

3 700 employees made up of faculty and

staff

out of this there are 160

that identify as black this is a mere

four percent

of the employee population

so if we break this number down a little

bit more into staff

there’s 2 100 individuals that identify

as staff at this

university 112

identify as black a mere 5

of the staff population

furthermore we can look at faculty at

this university professors

over 1500 faculty and professors

50 50 identify

as black this is 3.2 percent

of the faculty population at this

university

so these numbers are clear universities

are not hiring

black talent into full-time staff nor

faculty positions

and we see at universities across the

country that black people who are in

roles and faculty and staff positions

are being thrust into pushing the

university’s racial equity progress

forward

and thus leading to burnout and lower

retention of these black faculty and

staff

so we can see the cyclical cycle of

universities not hiring black talent

and not retaining black talent but it’s

important for us to also see how

performative activism

impacts students so i want to take a

look at my graduating class of 2019

so that we can get a full four year

trajectory of students

at universities in the united states so

at this university

there are a little over 2200 black

students about 11 percent

of the student population these are the

four year

graduation rates 24.8 percent of black

students graduate in four years

compared to 33.7 percent of non-black

students

this is a 10 point difference between

four-year graduation rates for black

students

and their non-black peers but we can go

a little deeper into this time period as

well

because in this four year period one in

two black students are not retained

at this university versus one in three

non-black students this means that if i

attend this university

as a first-year student there’s a 50

chance that i will not be at the

university in four years

and i will not be leaving with the

degree

this is indicative of one university

but this is a trend at so many

universities nationwide

even while i’m talking about this you

may even be thinking am i talking about

your university

because you see black students are not

being graduated nor retained at

comparable rates

to their non-black peers at universities

across the country

why it’s because there’s a lack of

success structures

for black students at universities why

it’s a lack of acknowledgement of

systemic issues at the universities

by the universities why is the lack of

creating or innovating

true change or dismantling these

systemic issues

at the universities by the universities

why is the lack of representation in the

classroom

why is the lack of representation on

campus at large

why is because black students are

continually having to push through

racial battle fatigue due to all of the

issues after mentioned

and i can hear you saying my university

said they’re diverse

my university said they care about their

black students my university said

and that’s because it’s all about

perception

it’s all about perception not about true

change

or true support

so what if i told you that it was more

important

for black people to be liberated from

anti-black racism

than it is for you to be perceived as a

good person

because you see we’ve talked about what

performative activism is

we’ve talked about how it implicates

real students

real people in real life but what does

true justice activism and support look

like

it looks like black people needing more

than listening and learning

which is arguably the new thoughts and

prayers

anti-black racism permeates literally

every aspect of our existence

from education to criminal justice

to health care to entertainment

to sports the list goes on and on

and on black people need non-black

people to speak up

stand up and get some skin in the game

black people need non-black people to

continue to have

uncomfortable conversations when black

people are not in the room

with that supervisor that continues to

demean and disrespect

their black employees with that family

member

that says all lives matter as a protest

to my black lives matter

black people need non-black people to

continue to self-educate

read books listen to those podcasts and

hire diversity equity and inclusion

consultants

anti-racism strategists to continue to

make our spaces more inclusive

and equitable black people need

non-black people

to analyze your rules policies

regulations things that you’ve been

doing for years

analyze them and dismantle them to

create more inclusive and equitable

spaces

for black people and black people need

non-black people to advocate

for their black peers their black

friends

their black colleagues their black

faculty their black staff

when black people are not in the room

because you see black people

need more than these little black boxes

of support

black people need accountability and

responsibility

not false saviorism because you see

that’s just the bottom line

black people need more

thank you

you