By Leia Neilson
At a climate strike in 2018, I saw a woman stiffly posing in front of the United States Capitol building, holding a sign inscribed with a catchy message about climate change and beaming into the camera. An hour later, I noticed her scrolling through her phone in the middle of a speech meant to encourage action to combat climate change. Though inattentive and seemingly uninterested, she had created the illusion that she was committed to fighting climate change, which her Instagram followers surely believed.
This facade of caring about global movements is not uncommon, and has attracted lots of negative attention since the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020. Many so-called activists at these protests posed in front of looted and destroyed buildings, drawing attention to themselves while distracting from the cause they were supposedly supporting. Often, it is white activists who draw attention away from BIPOC voices by posting photos of themselves at protests or strikes on social media, generally for their own gain, followers, or attention.
Globally, BIPOC are disproportionately affected by the combined effects of climate change and racism, revealing why it is so important to uplift their voices in the climate movement. Despite having small carbon footprints, millions living in developing nations are facing the worst effects of climate change yet. The same applies on a local level, with Black and Brown people living in low-income neighborhoods suffering more from the effects of natural disasters than whites in higher-income suburban or gentrified inner-city neighborhoods. When activists distract from these issues by overpowering BIPOC voices, we lose a crucial focal point of the climate movement.
This issue ties into the concept of a “white savior,” or a white person imagined as having rescued a marginalized person or group from their way of life. Oftentimes, these marginalized peoples have not asked to be rescued, and the “help” that white saviors do offer them is only a temporary fix to the problem. Instead of seeing the bigger, systemic issues that such groups face, white saviors often focus on isolated instances of larger problems, solutions to which there is little to no real impact on the situation. Social media platforms promote and boost white saviorism, thereby drawing positive attention to the savior and away from the problem.
In fact, the entire “save the world” complex that many youth activists have developed with the advent of social media as an avenue for activism can also be harmful. Saving the world will not come about by reposting an Instagram post on your story or by drawing attention to the ways that you specifically are saving the world. Instead of creating the unrealistic notion that it is possible to save the entire world through your activism alone, it is better to focus on smaller issues that when added together can make real change. As soon as attending climate strikes and advocating for change becomes a way to boost one’s own social media popularity, connecting with people becomes harder and the activism loses all meaning.
Still, most people recognize that social media is a powerful tool that can be used for good within the activism sphere. The best way to harness the power of social media is by uplifting voices that are not your own. By all means, speak your mind on issues, but do not do it so loudly that you drown out others’ voices.
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