The internet looks quite different today, which has been dubbed Blackout Tuesday.
Amid the protests over the death of George Floyd — ruled a homicide by the medical examiner — while in police custody in Minneapolis last week, an effort is underway to amplify black voices today and its being demonstrated in different ways.
It stemmed from the music industry’s call for a “pause” on June 2. Music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang announced an initiative called #theshowmustbepaused, to disrupt business as usual “in observance of the long-standing racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard.”
The movement has been adopted by music labels and artists, including Rolling Stones, Quincy Jones and Billie Eilish. And the big streaming services — including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music — promised a day of special playlists with moments of silence and a social media blackout.
It’s since extended beyond the music industry and has been adopted by celebrities — including Rihanna (who shut down her various companies for the day), Drake and Kylie Jenner, to name a few — as well as sports figures, corporations and regular folks. People are dedicating their social media streams to express support of the Black Lives Matters movement by posting plain black squares in their feeds or making them their profile photos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
And it’s not meant to mute people. It’s a show of solidarity, but also an effort to amplify black voices, black art, the black community and organizations fighting for equality.
This article was originally posted on yahoo.com/entertainment/.
