thread on performative activism

it’s sad to see a lot of you never learn.

what is performative activism?

activism used to gain recognition for yourself and for your own benefit rather than for action or surface level activism. you’re not actually devoted to the cause, you just want everyone to know you support it.

your interest in the topic isn’t long-term, it’s all about the clout. these are basically empty gestures completely miss the point of the movements. you’re not posting because you care, you’re posting to participate.

how do you know if what you’re doing is performative?

- you participate in the movement without action
- you’re suporting a cause you’re not educating yourself in
- you won’t continue your work when the attention has died down
- you’re only posting this because your moots are

why is it bad?

other than the obvious hypocrisy, performative activism can undermine the seriousness of the movement. people think that rting or posting a link is enough to help. performative posts also bury important information (such as donations, petitions).

it also takes attention away from those who actually need change, or actually support change. at times, you may even be speaking over the people who are actually experiencing these issues.

things to ask yourself before you post:

- are you mainly doing this to make yourself feel/look good?
- does this tweet have important info that can help people (donations or petitions links)?
- does this help inform people or help to continue the conversation?

- what is the goal for posting this? to raise awareness, educate, inspire, or to show everyone i support this?
- am i tweeting this just because everyone else is?
- does it have a call to action?
- have i clicked the link/signed the petition i am sharing?

what are some examples of performative activism?

- saying “instead of caring about x why don’t you talk about y”, especially in arguements

you can care/tweet about more than one topic at a time. all you’re doing is irritating the other person.

and you tweeting that does NOTHING to the movements, you just want to make yourself look good and the other person look bad.

-posting carrds and links, and rting threads, that you haven’t read through

if you aren’t educating yourself about the situation, don’t pretend you care. it hurts people when you use things their race/countries go through for clout or your own image.

- chains, rt/reply if you support x

these clog the timeline and tags and bury tweets with actual information and petitions on the topic. and there are many people that know this is wrong, but by tagging them, or seeing their moots participate, they feel guilty if they don’t.

-selective activism

it’s okay to be vocal about movements and issues, as long as you’re putting the same energy into other things you come across. don’t be selective and only talk about issues that are getting attention or benefit you.

what you can do instead:

- stop picking and choosing what you want to participate in
-be a productive ally, educate yourself
-recognize your privilege, if you can choose to stay silent, you’re privileged
-don’t speak over people
remember: world issues are NOT trends

- donate: donating money to causes that directly help those who are involved in the movement. try to put your money where your mouth is to order to show your true support, but if you can’t there’s ways to donate for free.

- sign petitions: don’t just share the petitions, sign them. they can be instrumental in creating change, it shows the public’s support of an issue.

- educate yourself: one of the most important things that you can do to support is to educate yourself on issues and movements.

- educate those around you: it’s so important to have hard conversations with your moots, friends, and family. educate those around you and correcting their biases. that’s how support for movements grow. tweet info, not just the tags.

remember: activism isn’t always public. you don’t need to document yourself to show your support.

this thread was inspired by this one: https://twitter.com/seungsapphic/status/1293393711594758150

sources i used:

https://www.redbrick.me/the-troubling-trend-of-performative-activism/
https://voxatl.org/the-dangers-of-performative-activism/
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2019/03/27/discourse-and-debate-is-performative-activism-inherently-bad/
https://universitystar.com/40141/opinions/opinion-performative-activism-does-more-harm-than-good/