Performative Activism
- Good For Youth Massachusetts
- Aug 25, 2021
- 3 min read
Written by: Devishi Jain
Cover Design by: Zainab Anwar
Performative activism is a term that has been thrown around by internet users, in an attempt to “cancel,” or call out, social media influencers, but not many know what it truly means.
The most common definition of performative activism is “activism that is done to increase one’s social capital rather than one’s devotion to a cause.” In simpler terms, performative activism is a way for people to portray themselves as if they are helping to make the world a better place on social media and using their platform for good, without actually putting in the work.
Last summer, on Tuesday, June 2, 29 million posts of black squares flooded Instagram, all of the captions mentioning #BlackLivesMatter. This movement started out as an effort to disrupt usual business to call on people to reflect on the death of George Floyd and bring forth support for racial justice and equality. However, #BlackoutTuesday morphed into a mass event of performative activism. The millions of posts of black squares under the Black Lives Matter hashtag drowned out the
Celebrities post black squares to join the #BlackoutTuesday movement.
Voices of actual activists and informative posts that included useful information about the movement and provided ways to help. Hitting the “post” button on June 2nd, and then proceeding to forget about the cause is why performative activism is harmful. It does not help the cause and in many cases, hurts it. The black squares under the Black Lives Matter hashtag prevented people from seeing valuable petitions and donation sites that would directly benefit the cause. Instead, once clicking on the hashtag, users only saw a sea of black square posts and did not have the resources that they needed to help readily available to them. Even though the movement started out as a well-meaning action, it quickly lost its purpose when it transformed into a trend and became more of a trend than activism towards an important cause. People started to forget what the black square they posted represents, which harms the cause. The posts did not lead to tangible action being taken towards the fight for racial justice, therefore Blackout Tuesday is a very good example of performative activism and shows how wide-spread the issue really is. Activism becoming a “trend,” may seem like a good thing because it means the causes are receiving more exposure and support than ever, but that is not the case. Trends come and go. People focus on them for a short period of time and then move on and forget about it once something new comes along. If activism becomes a trend and not something that people truly care about, the causes being fought for won’t receive the support they need and the changes that need to take place in the world.
Social media is still a very helpful tool to help spread awareness, vital information, and resources but users have to be careful and reflect on whether their actions are actually going to be helpful and impactful to the cause.
Doing the bare minimum for a cause on social media gives people a sense of self-fulfillment, but overall numbs the significance of the issue. Additionally, performative activism is not exclusively online. An example of performative activism off the screen is the the Mayor of Washington D.C., having “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street leading to the White House. This was done as a way of honoring the protesters who were gathering on that street, but it doesn’t help implement change. Having the road painted made the mayor, Muriel Bowser, look good in the public eye without actually fighting for the cause and enacting change in the government.
To help prevent and ultimately entirely stop performative activism, people should know what to look out for. They should know whether their actions raise awareness and help other people access resources, or does it just follow a trend? Does that post have links to donation sites? Are there links to authentic activists who provide important and useful information? These are a few of the questions you can ask yourself if you’re unsure of whether you are witnessing genuine or performative activism. Everyone should be passionate about the issues of the world, but they should also be careful of doing it the right way.
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