By Amanda Giglio
Over the weekend, my social media was unexpectedly filled with selfies and posts of black people flaunting their beauty. Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook were all trending one thing: #BlackOutDay, on March 6, a 24 hour period of showcasing black beauty and spreading appreciation and love in the community. At the end of Black History Month, an event happens that shows black history in today’s age.
At first, I was confused as to what was going on. As a middle-class white female, I just assumed that there was no judgment when posting selfies; it is something that most people our age do and even I am guilty of posting the occasional selfie. But this hashtag was aiming to promote black body positivity and push black people into the mainstream every day.
It was not until I was scrolling down my dash, seeing all the varieties of photos and people that I realized something: this is the type of representation that white people, including myself, get every day.
#BlackOutDay was inspired by Tumblr as a way to extend the remembrance of black pride beyond Black History Month. User T’von, the founder, along with Tumblr user nukirk spoke of the reasoning behind wanting to make this a celebration: “Of course I see a constant amount of Black celebrities but what about the regular people?…It’s past time for the beauty of Black people to be showcased.”
Word quickly spread as black activists and Internet famous people promoted the cause. This led to some backlash from sites like Reddit, trying to spam the hashtag, but this did not stop the self-love and posting of black bodies from taking over social media for the day.
Unfortunately, as of the past year, the majority of black representation in the media is vastly negative. From Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri to Eric Garner in New York, and the many men and women before and after these men, black representation in popular media revolves around being killed and breaking the law. The stigma around African-Americans, or just people who are seen as black, has gotten progressively worse over the years. While the Civil Rights Movement reached its peak in the late 1960s, and the privileges and rights of African Americans have increased since then, racism is not extinct.
African American men still combat discrimination in the workforce, policing and everyday life. The wage gap between racial groups is still prominent, with African American men making 74 cents to a white man’s dollar, as of 2010, and do not even get me started on the wage gap between African American women compared to white men and women. In New York, black and latino communities continue to be excessively targeted for stop-and-frisks, with 55 percent stopped being black and only 12 percent white, while nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked are innocent.
In the midst of these statistics as well as police brutality protests, shootings of young black men and the overwhelmingly white representation in the Oscars this year, now is as important as ever to promote black beauty and fight the negative stereotypes.
All people of color deserve to feel worthy of praise and admiration and, hopefully, with the continuation of #BlackOutDay throughout the year representation of people of color will continue to inspire and break into popular culture.
