Performative activism is dangerous

Performative activism is a person’s effort to appear supportive of a social justice cause while continuing to perpetrate harmful behavior. We witnessed it during the Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movements, and we are currently seeing it within the Free Palestine movement, which aims to defend and advocate for the human rights of all Palestinians.

Using social media can be both a positive and negative way to raise awareness about these issues, organizations, and strategies through a series of hashtags, posts, videos, and more. It can be a very effective way to share information while educating and supporting the cause. Within the last few years, we have seen a significant influx of performative behavior on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. During the BLM movement, social media influencers were under fire for attending protests and rallies for clicks and likes from their thousands, if not millions, of followers. With the rise of social media activism, there has been more pressure to look good by doing “good” deeds. 

One of the main issues with social media activism is how short-lived these movements are. Social media tends to cycle through topics and trends in a frustratingly swift motion. Our attention spans have shortened so much that we often forget about the objective of any given movement. Eventually, all of the support and action become another “phase,” which is not the goal.

As students on SUNY Geneseo’s campus, it is no secret that we do not have all the resources necessary to attend many in-person events; We lack transportation, proximity, money, and other kinds of support. If you are unable to attend protests, sit-ins, rallies, etc., there is so much more you can do to get involved, however. Considering the size and location of this campus, we may feel like our voices are small and disregarded, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Actively boycotting large companies and businesses that contribute to the exploitation of certain groups is a beneficial way to get involved. As we have seen with McDonald’s, boycotts are most effective when large groups of people participate. Writing letters and signing petitions are the most prolific forms of activism.

We cannot confirm nor deny who is being sincere while advocating for social justice issues, but what we can do is learn how to be better activists and encourage others to do the same. Since performative activism is so prominent, we are often unaware that we may be partaking in it as well. Performative activism is dangerous for all of us, and advocating in disregard for marginalized groups puts that group of people, along with their activists, in serious danger. It is our responsibility to work on becoming better activists, as doing something is better than doing nothing.

If boycotting is all you can do at the moment, keep doing it. If sending emails is the only thing you can do, keep doing it. You are still doing something, even if you are unable to attend protests, rallies, or sit-ins. There is only so much we can do as individuals, but we have to recognize that we have the ability to do something.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons