#BlackoutTuesday: what does it represent and how could it help

🇪🇸 El siguiente artículo fue escrito originalmente en inglés por nuestro colaborador en Nueva Jersey Denzel Jones. Puedes leer la versión en español aquí. Traducción de Natalia Warrior.

🇺🇸 The following post was originally written in English by our New Jersey-based collaborator Denzel Jones. You can read the spanish version right here. Translated by Natalia Warrior.

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If your brothers and sisters were murdered in cold blood, hunted down, barged in on while sleeping in the middle of the night and then slain by those sworn to protect them, would you still go about your everyday life as if nothing happened?

In honor of #BlackoutTuesday T.I, Rihanna, Kylie Jenner and many more have gone dark on their Instagram as a form of protesting the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others at the hands of police.

The decision is a choice to not make any posts on social media for 24 hrs. except for a a blank, black image which stands for solidarity. Along with that, the guidelines are as such: suspend music streams and YouTube streams for the day.

Cancel/close/suspend participation in all dance studios, classes and meetings. Identify ways to help your community. Strengthen your knowledge on contemporary race relations and the history of black social political and economic plight in the U.S.

The initiative, created by music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, declare that they are in this fight for the long haul. The pair expressed:

“It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective, and productive conversion about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community.»

As the year began to cross into the halfway mark, protests sprouted in over 200 cities across the nation. From Los Angeles, California to Miami, Florida. And from Chicago, Illinois to New York City. I was actually able to witness firsthand powerful speeches from the some of the city’s leaders during the Newark, New Jersey protest.

And as they gained more and more coverage, millions across the globe began showing support, including over a dozen Latin record labels. Sony Music Latin, Rich Music, Universal Music Latin Entertainment, and more have all made statements regarding their sociopolitical stances. Artists Zion (Zion & Lennox), Prince Royce, Pedro Capó, Becky G, Sofía Reyes, Justin Quiles among others publicly support the cause as well.

America now stands divided, half of the country exhausted and enraged by police brutality, and the other half showing indifference and/or just simply being facetious about it all.

Whites, Indians, Hispanics, not just blacks, are fed up with the mistreatment of African Americans. Slavery has been over for almost 158 years (June 19th ) yet there are still killings and «public lynchings» with little to sometimes no repercussions for killers.

It took almost two months for Travis and Gregory McMichael to be arrested for the death of Ahmaud Arbery. And it took 4 days for Derek Chauvin to be arrested despite his public and careless «handling» of George Floyd. Both murders were caught on film.

«Racism is not getting worse, it’s getting filmed.» – Will Smith

Follow the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused to stay informed.