Overview

Blackout Tuesday, also known as Blackout Day, is a social media campaign to elevate African American voices, show solidarity with African Americans and show support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the past, black social media users participated in Blackout Day to promote solidarity by exclusively posting selfies of black people. Following the death of George Floyd, some used the campaign to post black boxes on social media, particularly Instagram, in a show of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Background

2015 Iteration

Originally founded in 2015, Blackout Day occurred in March 2015. On March 1st, 2015, Tumblr ^[1] user thoughtremixer, also known as Nukirk, posted "#BlackoutDay Credits/FAQ." In the post, they credit Tumblr user expect-the-greatest with the idea and Tumblr user incongneeco with description.

The following day, expect-the-greatest posted about the day.^[2] They wrote:

I got inspired to propose Blackout day after thinking “Damn, I’m not seeing enough Black people on my dash”. Of course I see a constant amount of Black celebrities but what about the regular people? Where is their shine? When I proposed it, I thought people would think it was a good idea, but not actually go through with implementing it. Luckily people wanted to get behind the idea, and @recklessthottie created the #Blackout tag.

I thought about the tag #Black Friday, and making it a tradition on the first Friday of every month, because celebrating the beauty of Blackness is of the UTMOST importance. I’m really sick and tired of seeing the “European standard of beauty” prevail. It’s past time for the beauty of Black people to be showcased. I love all people of color, but this here is for us.

Black History Month is always excellent, but one month isn’t enough to celebrate our heritage and our beauty. No matter what your skin tone is, you’re beautiful. All my life I have heard my grandma tell me stories of how her own people did her because she was lighter than most. She told me some awful stories that will make anybody tear up and its these stories that make me wish that there wasn’t such a divide in skin tones. We need a unified agreeance that ALL black people are beautiful and worthy of praise and admiration, and Blackout day is a step towards that.”

BLACKOUT DAY IS MARCH 6th. Get your Selfies ready!

That day, Twitter^[10] user @threephonejones posted the earliest available mention of the day one Twitter (shown below).

The Show Must Be Paused

On May 31st, 2020, in response to the death of George Floyd and other instances of police violence against African Americans, Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, two Black women who work in the music industry, launched #TheShowMustBePaused, a social media protest campaign designed to force the music industry to recognize the immense profit being made off of Black artists.^[3] They wrote:

Tuesday, June 2nd is meant to intentionally disrupt the work week. Monday suggests a long weekend, and we can't wait until Friday for change. It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community.

The music industry is a milt-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people accountable.

Developments

Music Industry Reaction

Numerous major record labels published commented about "Blackout Tuesday," announcing that they would be participating (shown below).

Online Reaction

On June 2nd, many posted Black boxes on social media to support the Black Lives Matter Protest. Within 24 hours, Instagram had more than 707,000 posts tagged #blackoutday2020 (shown below).

Some criticized use of the hashtag, saying that it clogged social media feeds for protesters and helped others control the narrative. Singer Kehlani wrote, "the news owned by the [opposition]. they feeding us whatever they want on that bitch. we keep eachother tappin in via social media. getting off it for a day… anything could go down wit no ability to warn eachother/help eachother.. i don’t know man." The tweet received more than 28,000 likes and 8,300 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Twitter user @atothebed responded by tweeting a video of their social media feed. They wrote, "my initial thought is it feels dangerous… because once you click on the blm hashtag you’re directed to an overflow of black images, instead of other more useful content people could look at for information." The post received more than 2 million views,18,000 likes and 9,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

my initial thought is it feels dangerous… because once you click on the blm hashtag you’re directed to an overflow of black images, instead of other more useful content people could look at for information. pic.twitter.com/QiaHPeoWGP

— A (@atothebed) June 2, 2020

Twitter^[11] user @anthoknees tweeted, "stop posting black squares under the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Instagram. it is intentionally and unintentionally hiding critical information we are using on the ground and online." The post received more than 13,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Some spoke out on behalf of the creators of the two movements. Twitter^[4] user @iviani tweeted, "People are posting black screens for black out Tuesday & using the black lives matter hashtag instead of the original hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused- the initiative started by 2 Black women working in the music industry to disrupt the industry. Blm tag wasn’t initially used." The tweet received more than 3,200 likes and 2,400 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

Under the Twitter^[5] handle @MarsinCharge, the creator of the original tweeted, "Hello friends, If you’re just following me, my name is Mars. With @nukirk, I started #BlackoutDay five years ago. I‘m grateful for your continued support." The tweet received more than 245 likes and 110 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).