Blackout Day

Blackout Day is a social media event which encourages the posting of content that was created by and features everyday black people. Specific tags e.g. #TheBlackout and #BlackoutDay are used to connect users to that content and to increase the visibility of that content. Blackout Day launched on March 6, 2015, and after December 21, 2015, is scheduled to be held on the sixth day of every third month, starting with March 6, 2016.^[1]

Background

The event was conceived in early February 2015 by Tumblr user T’von Green.^[2] Green noticed that there was a lack of black representation on social media, specifically on Tumblr;

“Damn, I’m not seeing enough Black people on my dash. Of course I see a constant amount of Black celebrities but what about the regular people? Where is their shine”.^[1][2]

In addition, he noticed that when black people were depicted it was usually in a negative light.^[3] Research has shown that Black images in the media adversely affect how members of the Black community view themselves.^[4] These harmful images are not only seen by the Black community, but by everyone who has access to a media outlet. Although images of Black people have increased in mass media, those images have been disproportionally harmful due to their violent and crime related content.^[5] Generally, if Black people are not being depicted as criminals, they are represented as entertainers such as athletes or musicians.^[5] Having these two polar identities of a lawless individual and highly adored star leaves a spectrum of people in the Black community unrepresented. While associating Blacks with athleticism is not harmful in itself, it becomes harmful when that is one of the only thing Blacks are associate with. This reality led to an ethical need for positive and relatable images of the black community on platforms like social media. Concerned about these issues Green decided to gain feedback on his idea by going on Tumblr and through those interactions he met Marissa Sebastian, who came up with the name behind the movement and later on became the PR and CEO of the movement, and Tumblr user V. Matthew-King Yarde (known as Nukrik on social media) the creator behind the various logos for the event.^[6][7][8] Blackout Day was created as a 24-hour event that would expose the online black community and others on social media to positive images of everyday beautiful black individuals, through selfies, videos, gifs and other media. Its goal was simple, shed a positive light on black individuals and cripple stereotypes. The idea spread quickly once given a name, and gained supporters within the black Tumblr community. An official website was created^[9] to help the online black community access up to date information on when and how it would work. Before the event, the creators posted guidelines on who could participate and how to do so.^[9]

After the event launched, the creators decided to make it a monthly event, on every first Friday of every month, but the frequency was an issue for a majority of supporters who believed that the event would not have a significant impact if it was a too frequent and they felt as though it should be a yearly event on the day it was first launch, which was an issue for the creators and also other supporters who thought the frequency should be increased.^[6] They changed it to a seasonal themed event that would occur on the 21st of September and December until January 2016, where it would be changed to fall on the 6th of every third month.^[1] Each Blackout Day would be themed around black heritage/history and participants are encouraged to post content surrounding the given theme.^[1]

Guidelines

The guidelines to Blackout are as follows;^[1]

• If you identify as Black, either from Africa or from within the African Diaspora, mixed (or part) Black, you can post a picture of yourself for others to admire and re-blog/re-tweet/re-post
• You’ll tag or mention #Blackoutday or #TheBlackout for it to count
• You’ll scroll through the tag and re-blog, re-tweet or re-post other photos within that tag to help support
• If you are not Black/non-Black or White, you’re just re-blogging what’s in the tags to show your support
• Look for people with low notes and show them some love as well.

Official hashtags used are #TheBlackout and #BlackoutDay

Reception

According to Twitter analytic service Topsy, the hashtag #BlackOutDay was one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter in the United States, with over 58,000 tweets by noon^[10] and was a trending topic on Facebook. The creators received national attention for their creative digital activism^[11] and used this attention as leverage to start a dialogue about race and the portrayal of black people in the media in and out of social media. Outside of social media they seek to keep the dialogues open through partnerships and have collaborated with Book Riot, and extended the partnership by sponsoring 22 black avid readers and writers.^[12] However, the event did not go without opposition hashtags such as #Whiteout were created as a public objection against the movement. The principle was the same as Blackout, but featured selfies of white people. The creators addressed this issue politely by reiterating their movement’s goal.^[8] Other minority groups have tried unsuccessfully, to mimic the movement by creating variations that are similar to the original #Blackoutday e.g. #Yellowoutday, #Brownoutday, etc. The creators suggested that they be more original and create tags that were more distinguishable from theirs.^[8]

Digital Activism

Other minority groups have since utilized digital activism to open up dialogues on different topics such as, cultural appropriation, media representation of certain ethnicity groups, racial profiling and etc. For instance, Reclaim the Bindi^[13] showcases how South Asian/South East Asian or Hindu cultural clothing are not fashion accessories that should be used for festivals, but rather sacred clothing with a significant spiritual and cultural meaning.

Typically Tumblr is characterized as the social media platform at the center of this cyberactivism. It is apply stereotyped as younger, progressive and more female driven than other forms of social media. The result is a space in which minority voices are given the type of attention they are denied in the mainstream. The site contains many sections and groups, but the one labeled "Social Justice Tumblr" is typically characterized as a bold prosecution of injustice. Blackout Day is thus an extension of this activism. It deviates from the typical approaches however, because its brand of social justice exists through the creation of the carefree black girl and black boy narrative. Through this narrative Blackout Day carves out a space for blackness separate from the many issues surrounding black bodies. Instead of raising awareness of the injustices, it celebrates the vastness of contemporary blackness.

References