Monday, June 8, 2020

THE STORY OF 2 HASHTAGS

For many of the oppressed and the underprivileged, social media has been a great boon. Otherwise quelled as soon as starts, by the powers that be, many important movements and protests never used to  take off in the physical world. Then came the online and virtual world, the power of of the social media and platforms such as YouTube, FB, Instagram, Twitter etc. that profoundly assisted many protests, particularly those on gender and racial violence. These had now spread across the world, touching even people belonging to different cultures. Two such pertinent movements are: 

#MeToo

The #MeToo is a movement against sexual harassment and abuse where women come out in the open with their allegations of the sex crimes committed by powerful and prominent men. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in 2006 on the social media platform, Myspace, by the sexual harassment survivor and activist Tarana Burke and later in 2015 by Italian model Ambra Gutierrez alleging sexual violations by the Hollywood Moghul, Weinstein. 

The way it caught on and the courage displayed by those women who otherwise had kept quiet for so many years due to the impossibility of fighting powerful men, was phenomenal. Every such incident that happened in the past and that is happening now, is brought to open. The movement had gone universal and so many powerful deities had fallen wayside with it. It is still going on. 

#BlackLifeMatters

It all started on 25th May 2020 when the brute force displayed a white cop on George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA for about Eight minutes, 46 seconds, killing him by asphyxiating him, after having him handcuffed for an alleged crime of vending a counterfeit 20 dollar bill (which later turned out to be genuine currency)  

Floyd’s death just triggered the pent-up fury of the black and coloured across USA and all over the world, on the intense racist attitude of the whites against them, that has going on for ages. Even the post event  communication from white American leaders, including its President, needed a lot to be desired. For the so called ‘20 dollar’ crime, the whole of US went up in riots and flames, and it is yet to subside. Surely #BlackLifeMatters, as a movement  against a racial oppression will continue and George Floyd hasn’t lost his life for nothing. 

Look at the way technology and devices are impacting our lives in ways we had never thought! 

No comments: