been seeing a lot of people on the tl trying to raise awareness for the situation happening in the us rn but i just want to issue a few gentle reminders:

1) not everyone is obligated to tweet about it. there are many people who might choose not to for valid reasons, e.g. they themselves are black or have been affected by police brutality, and it’s simply too painful/traumatizing

2) for the same set of reasons, a lot of people might be taking a break from twt right now. their absence should not be misconstrued as callousness

3) most importantly, and i cannot stress this enough, /tweeting alone does not accomplish shit/. dig deep and take a hard look at yourself. are you pressuring everyone around you to tweet about the issue so you can feel as though you’ve contributed?

i just can already see stan twt starting to try to co-opt the continued systemic violence and brutality that Black folx have experienced for centuries into yet another way for some people to try and feel like they have the moral high ground - which decenters what is

really important here and is inherently selfish.

is your support merely performative? call your legislators (if you’re in the US). donate if you can to the ACLU, the gofundme for the family, etc. have hard conversations with your nonblack family (lookin at you, fellow east asians). tweeting #BlackLivesMatter is only a START.

this is all i will personally be saying on the matter bc as an nbpoc i prefer to elevate Black voices on this subject. but to my black and brown friends and loved ones, i love you, i see you. i hear you. please take care in the immediate aftermath.