You Can Do More

Words have power. Images supposedly are worth a thousand words. So think about the difference between putting a "Black Lives Matter" circle border around your photo versus replacing your photo with an image that just says "Black Lives Matter".

Those who choose the first example, are still centering themselves in the conversation, an endless problem for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) tired of explaining white supremacy, educating those who haven't been paying attention about systemic racism, and consoling fragile white egos.

Performative "support" is almost worse than no support at all. It makes the person performing believe they're doing something and allows them to believe they aren't required to do any more.

But, there's so much more we can/should do, so much more that needs to be done. Plenty of others on social media have listed some of the options, I'm not going to be repetitive. (Because quite frankly, if you don't know what you can/should be doing you again haven't been paying attention.)

The purpose of this post is to get people to think about performative support versus committing to action. The difference between signing a petition (which only gives your data to the petition site and is routinely ignored by recipients) versus tracking down names and addresses of politicians, sending them letters/emails, and making phone calls.

Chances are if it's easy and makes you feel good, it's performative and you can do more.