There is a video of a black man being murdered by white supremacists (police) circulating on the internet. Once upon a time such video documentation led to great public outcry & legislative impact. But social media has totally changed that means of achieving justice.

I remind myself, a dead baby face down in the sand didn’t lead to a change in the approach to the refugee crisis. Watching a man die under the knee of a police officer won’t change the approach to policing. Because we have become totally desensitised to such violence.

And social media companies have played a huge role in allowing that desensitisation. Angry black people is one of the most effective ways for them to maintain profits. Because high engagement is the bedrock of their business. It is what pulls advertisers & investors in.

The role of social media in mobilisation & community building is important, I’m not going to deny that. But oftentimes when there is no clear goal or objective, videos of violence become performative opportunities for apathetic people to prove to their followers that they ‘care’.

While Black people are forced to experience such a grotesque trauma on their phones, doing little to aid in their healing. I believe that social media companies have adjusted their models to directly profit off of this trauma.

Sharing videos of violence feels good to non black people because we feel like we’re doing something. And this feeling is something social media companies have studied extensively, for the sole purpose of keeping you on here, and angry & engaged.

It’s why they allow videos of violence & propaganda to roam freely on their platforms. Stoking anger & trauma is profitable. So they allow videos like this to be uploaded and the higher the engagement, the more it is pushed. Just look at what happened in Myanmar.

Algorithms created by these firms are built to traumatise black people. And though we may feel like we’re doing good by sharing such violent evidence, the mixture of apathy, performative allyship, desensitisation leads to an exhausting cycle.

I fear constant visibility of such violence only serves to harm Black people and glorify ourselves. And I think that in general that is really detrimental to our pursuit of justice. There is enough evidence of the violence of police murder.

We could have a hundred videos like this and the same thing will keep happening. We share because we hope that something will tick, but a malignant normality means no one will tick. Social media has made the attainment of justice much harder...because we all are moving away

From community building to community sharing, from direct action to direct liking, from de platforming to simply blocking. I’m not going to pretend... I’ve no fucking idea what the best solution is either. I just need us to start unlearning this shit.

So instead of sharing that video, because ‘reach’ does not = change. donate to black lives matter organisations. Because you know what does lead to change? Money to support the people fighting in the courts/communities & the victims. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019

BTW social media has become a vital way for black people & muslims to document & archive violence against us and this isn’t to say that we should just stop sharing it at all. I’m just saying it’s not necessary to traumatise communities over and over again.