Rolling Black Outs Sweeping The Nation

I waste a good amount of time on tumblr. It really can't even be dignified with a "spend", the reality is that a great deal of the things on the website are honestly just a waste of time. Case in point the picture I saw this morning of a dog seemingly standing on water with the caption "the lord is my Shepherd" However, for as much stupidity as there is on tumblr, there is also a great deal of social discussion which, most likely, could not exist to the same extent on any other forum. One of the best examples of this was the recent "black out". To briefly explain, the day was devoted towards giving representation to black men, women, and everyone in between. The event was founded on the heels of the growing criticism towards modern media, which typically only shows attractive white people. This black out was a way of giving faces and voices to those who have gone without seeing people who look like them on tv, in movies, really in almost any sector of the entertainment industry.

People participated by posting pictures of themselves to any social media outlet they favored, but I saw the majority on tumblr. Overall the day was a great success, but there were some who tried to dampen the event's effectiveness. White champions of "equality" called out against the black out day and cheered on a white out day instead. These are the same people that change things like #blacklivesmatter to #alllivesmatter.

The most frustrating part about people like this is how oblivious they seem to be about the reality happening all around the globe. Yes, of course all lives matter, but that's not the point. The point is that for many people, and not just black people, anyone who isn't white has probably felt this too, they have not been given the opportunity to understand that their lives matter. In the same way that a little girl may look at a poster of US presidents and feel like she could never achieve their position, a person of color simply has to turn on a tv to feel as though they do not belong in the artificial world created by media sources. This is why things like black out days are so important. They enable the minority to feel represented and to feel like they matter. Obviously one day isn't going to solve racism, but it's a step in a powerful direction. The movement has been put in place, it's rolling, but it is going to need a serious push if this stone can ever hope to evade all the moss coming its way.