You may or may not have already heard about Blockout2024, and either way, here are some suggestions to make sure your activism here isn't being performative.
First, what it is for those unfamiliar:
Blockout2024 is a movement to block celebs/influencers not using their platforms to speak up for Palestine, and it all started with this year's Met Gala- more specifically Hayley Bayley's "Let them eat cake" Met Gala tiktok, which was (rightfully) not well received by anyone considering everything going on right now, most of all the genocide in Palestine.
Now that that is out of the way, what do I mean by "make sure your activism here isn't being performative," ?
The blockout started with very good intentions, but in just a couple days it turned from "Let's send a message by blocking this handful of ultra wealthy celebs who aren't using their massive influence to speak up for Palestine" (I believe it started with Taylor Swift, the Kardashians, Lizzo and maybe a couple others?)
And now it's largely become "Now we're blocking ALL celebs and influencers! Even if they start speaking up- because it's too little too late!"
Now don't get me wrong! It seemed to be working famously at first. Kim Kardashian lost 3 million followers in like a day on Insta, and all this commotion made Lizzo and Brittany Broski finally make posts speaking out about Palestine (even if they did give off the energy of "Here! Damn...")
But I think a lot of us saw that, and got too excited for our own good. People started expanding the block list with no organization, or research, or any real plan whatsoever.
I can't tell you how many posts I've seen where someone posted a new block list, only to apologize and have to remove names because they were informed that said person either had spoken up, was donating money, or were just focusing their time on other equally important causes (like Sudan and Congo) right now.
I saw people even started putting Bella and Gigi Hadid on the block list, whose father is literally a Palestinian refugee, because Gigi went to the Met Gala. Bella has been so outspoken about Palestine this whole time, and Gigi -while not as vocal as her sister- has spoken up in support of Palestine as well.
I've also seen people just putting names on lists just to put names on the list, it seems. Corpse Husband was on one list for not speaking up, but apparently he hasn't even been active online in two years due to health issues.
And while writing this I also found out that people have been putting Alan Rickman on the blocklist.
I'll say that again- Alan... Rickman. A man who has been dead for EIGHT YEARS, and who also very much showed his support for Palestine while he was alive.
It's time to admit that we've lost the plot.
At point break speed this movement went from something with great potential to performative action. It's all just performative action anymore and people policing others for not performing said activism in the way they personally want to see.
Now, if you want to block a celeb/influencer, I'm not going to stop you. You have the power to give - or not give - your attention to whomever you please. I will say though that if you want this blockout to work we can't keep going about it like this.
There's a reason you've seen it losing momentum in such a short amount of time.
If we're going to do this we need to keep it organized. I think we had the right idea at first with blocking the Kardashians, Swift, and Lizzo to put pressure on them to use their highly influential platforms to speak up for Palestine. I'm sure a couple others could be added to this list, but honestly I don't really keep up with celeb culture enough to be able to name more names right now.
In addition, if anybody else, we should be outright blocking those who have outright refused to speak up and/or sides with Israel. I'm talking people like Bret Gelman, Gal Gadot, Dr. Phil, etc. People heavily outspoken in favor of Israel who constantly double down, spread misinformation, and just do not care about Palestinian lives. These are the people who aren't going to listen to any opposition, and don't deserve a platform because they are complicit with genocide.
With that said, I don't think we should automatically be blocking anyone who hasn't spoken up yet. Those are the people we need to be putting pressure on. Make them show us exactly who they are. No more keeping quiet, or trying to play both sides. Let them know we need to know where they stand, and if they can't stand against genocide, we won't stand with them- and they can fall to the same digitine. ("Digital guillotine," for those unaware)
And as for those who may have posted in support back in October but are silent now, my suggestion is that we need to put pressure on them to speak up again. Show them that one post from months ago doesn't get them a free pass forever- if they aren't continuing to speak up, or helping in other ways like transferring some of their massive wealth into helping families evacuate, we don't need them.
But the point very much is to put pressure on them first and give them time to show us they will. If we outright block them it does nothing to help accomplish our goal- which is to get more of them to speak up.
Also on that note, I also suggest we make it clear that we do not want posts about Palestinian GoFundMe's from multimillionaire celebs unless it's a post about how they paid it off themselves. When they can pay off the balance and not feel a thing, there's no reason why they should be asking us, the poors, to donate. It's simply performative on their part. (Did they learn nothing from the Oprah/The Rock Maui incident?)
If anything, they need to be asking their other rich celeb friends to donate, not us.
Perhaps it could be a weekly culling. Pick a list of five to ten celebs/influencers to put pressure on for a week, then block whoever refuses to speak up and start up with a new list the following week, and so on, until they all start getting the message.
We also need to abandon the whole "It's too little, too late!" way of thinking.
We need to remember that this is about helping Palestine, not about our own feelings.
It doesn't matter if we feel like they should have spoken up months ago- we cannot punish the behavior we want to see, and the behavior we want to see is these celebs/influencers using their influence for good. Yes, they should have spoken up from the start, but we still need them to speak up now.
If we send the message that they're damned if they don't and still damned if they do, it actually incentivizes them to just... not- because they're damned either way.
And finally, we need to start promoting the celebs who have been doing the work, both new and especially those who have been speaking up all along. This will also send a message to the rest.
I'm talking Mark Ruffallo, Bella Hadid, Pedro Pascal, Emma Watson, and so many others. We need to be giving them our attention over those who refuse to speak up.
For this to work we need to be organized and targeted about it. Have a small block list of ultra wealthy/ultra influential celebs/influencers to block first.
This will send a message to the rest, who we'll be putting pressure on at the same time. Call them in, tell them they need to tell us where they stand and that they need to use their influence to do good and speak up against the genocide. Tell the multimillionaires to transfer some of that wealth into helping families escape. If they won't, then we will no longer give them the attention that makes them so much of that money.
And we need to be giving a larger platform not just to those celebs who are taking the time to do the work, so that their influence can reach further than it already does, but also more importantly Palestinian voices because they are the ones who are going to tell us what they need right now. Voices like Bisan Owda, Plestia Alaqad, Hind Khoudary, and Motaz Azaiza.
You might recognize this as similar to the model of the BDS movement, and that's because it is. Because they absolutely know what they're doing with the targeted action, and that's why it works.
And again, the moment we start with "It's too little too late!" is the moment we have centered our own feelings over Palestine.
We need these celebs' influence, and there is such a thing as 'better late than never' when so many lives are still at stake.
Please don't let your ego get ahead of your common sense.
Ok, call-in over. I hope someone who needs to hear this takes this to heart.
