It feels like performative activism is at an all time high.

I mean, it’s always been existent, with people pretending to care about causes to feel or look like better people, but it has stood out to me way more in the past three years.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not trying to attack anyone reading this. If you personally feel like you fall under what I’m about to describe, that’s a personal issue that requires self reflection.

If you only care about discrimination when it’s right in front of you, you’re a part of the problem.

If you only care about marginalized groups when it’s convenient for you, you’re also a part of the problem.

If you refuse to do any type of digging into an issue beyond staring at an Instagram reel and you’re taking whatever’s been spewed at you by major outlets without other sources, believe it or not, you are a part of the problem.

Here’s why, though: making the decision to become informed on what happens around you—whether that be genocide or systemic racism by an institution that’s meant to protect people—isn’t as hard as a lot of people make it out to be.

There’s so much power in social media, and it’s a great starting point for figuring out your stance on what you believe, or what’s going on in the world. But you should always springboard off of that starting point and read more articles. Actual accounts of victims and their relatives. Fact check those major outlets and where their information comes from, how it’s skewed and interpreted. 

And it’s crazy to say this, but even look for those logical fallacies and reliable source dog whistles you learned about all those years ago. Some people will try to conflate one form of discrimination with supporting other marginalized groups (inherently wrong, two separate issues) and use that to guilt trip an audience into swaying in support of the oppressor.

And I’m not saying you have to be all-in on activism, but it’s important to open up your world view. Stop blindly resharing graphics without knowing what they mean. Don’t rely on your friends to know information that you can go find yourself. Think critically. Protest, boycott, even, if you’re in the position to do those things.

I know tons of people who laugh at everyone who was posting black squares on their Instagram feeds as though that would end anti-blackness…but some of you aren’t all that different. Same boat, different oars.

Don’t be complacent, but don’t stop thinking about the issues at hand the second your screen goes dark.