On March 6, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and any other social media was dedicated to #blackoutday. All social media was flooded with gorgeous pictures of black people, along with the hashtag blackout, for the day.
The movement originated from Tumblr, more specifically Tumblr user expect-the-greatest, a black pride blog. His real name is T’von. As the movement started to gain attention on Tumblr, it spread to the other social media sites, until almost everyone was waiting for March 6 to come.
As soon as March 6 hit, many people contributed to Black Out Day, posting selfies or photos with others on all social medias, and adding the hashtag blackout or blackoutday to their photos. The trend even got some celebrities to contribute, including Amandla Stenberg and Jackée Harry. Despite that, T’von has expressed that he came up with the idea for the day after realizing, despite the fact that he had plenty of black celebrities on his dash, there wasn’t enough selfies from other users. T’von wished for other black people to embrace their beauty and not be ashamed of their skin.
Although many people had told white people to not post in the blackout tag and to give black people this one thing, many wouldn’t have it. Some even started their own hashtag, #whiteout, claiming black people have a whole month, while white people have nothing. Many people added to the hashtags, but #blackout was more popular. Some of the tweets for #whiteout were people criticizing it, saying things along the lines of white people starting the whiteout hashtag is like asking for straight pride parades: it’s ridiculous. Racism is so strong that white people feel so threatened they have to reestablish dominance through such things as the whiteout hashtag.
Despite the other hashtags, #BlackOutDay was a huge success across all social media, and people are trying to get Blackout Day to become an annual thing. Even after March 6 passed, people are still posting under the hashtag.
Blackout Day may be over, but social media still wants more. Y.R.N. has recently posted on his tumblr, “Next #Blackout is April 3rd. Lets do it BIGGER and BETTER.”
