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