performative activism

what it is and why it's harmful

what is performative activism?

"performative activism is a pejorative term referring to activism done to increase one's social capital rather than because of one's devotion to a cause."

what does this mean?

it basically means treating the cause like a trend. you see everyone else doing it, you post what other people post to keep yourself from looking bad. you decided to speak up to benefit you, not to help others.

some examples of performative activism

  • retweeting a thread of petitions and not signing any

  • posting an image or tag without any information on how to help

  • only speaking up when in danger of losing followers / friends / supporters

  • putting something such as "blm" or "acab" in your profile without actually supporting the movement

  • deleting information / resources from your page once the "trend" is over

  • using a movement as a way to gain / keep supporters

  • only speaking up once a celebrity speaks up and disregarding the movement otherwise

  • being vocal only on social media and staying silent offline

why is this harmful?

"Put simply performative activism on social media and real life also equates to silence. It is you trying to be an activist and an ally when you quite frankly don't even care to begin with. Why is this detrimental? Because you will not take active actions in real life, you will not challenge people on the issues of race in order to change them, you will not open up dialogues. You will not hold yourself and others accountable for their actions, therefore you will continue to be silent and nothing will be done."

source

when you're in a position of privilege and are able but refusing to do more than you are doing, your activism is most likely performative. if you only support a movement or cause online to keep up a good image and refuse to advocate for these causes offline, your activism is performative.

please do your part!

there are many ways to avoid being a performative activist and do your part in making a change. the thread below has donation links, informative carrds, and over 1000 petitions. educate yourself. be an activist because it's the right thing to do, not to make yourself look good or fit in. there's far more important things than your image. it's extremely important to realize that. thank you for taking the time to read through this carrd and better yourself <3

petitions + info thread