Guest Column by Charlie Aresty | Teach, don’t punish, inactive allies on social media
It’s hard to escape current events when the same tools we use to stay connected with each other are also how we express our opinions on politics, social justice, and crises around the world. This past week, we’ve seen our nation engage in an intense response to the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers. Activist groups such as the Black Lives Matter movement have called for a systematic review of America’s law enforcement agencies for the past decade, yet this is one of the few times engagement on social media dominated the space to such an extent. I logged into Instagram this morning to see #blackouttuesday — every story and post tied back to the Black Lives Matter movement. A thousand questions about the case demand answers, but one stands apart from the rest: Why was this the straw that broke the camel’s back?