A massive protest is being held today in London’s Hyde Park in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protestors across the USA. For those who are unable to attend the protest, or any of the others taking place across the world this week, the advice has been to donate to bail funds, fundraisers for George Floyd’s family and other BLM-associated organisations. But if you’re in a position which leaves you unable to contribute financially, there are plenty of other ways of expressing solidarity and helping in your own way.
Yesterday we published a guide explaining how to contact your MP, if you’re UK-based, to demand that the British government stops contributing to police brutality by selling tear gas and rubber bullets to America. If you haven’t already, please read that guide and follow the steps to contact and pressurise your political representatives here.
You can also contribute indirectly through ad sales, as a young Black YouTuber, Zoe Amira, has demonstrated in a helpful guide on her channel. Zoe’s video project allows viewers to contribute to bail funds through ad revenue, with 100% of the advertising proceeds embedded in her video on YouTube through AdSense being donated to a huge list of bail funds across the US. In the accompanying description, Zoe encourages users watching the video to share it so it can reach more people. Another easy way to accumulate more donations is to leave the video playing on repeat in the background of whatever you are doing, to let views and revenue (donations) pile up.
You can also make your voice heard through the signing of petitions. Despite almost 22 million people participating in yesterday’s #BlackOutTuesday by posting a black square on their Instagram accounts, only 13 million people have signed a Change.org petition calling for Justice For George Floyd. Follow the link to sign the petition, and also to contribute to more localised petitions, like this one calling for Britain to finally begin reckoning with its racist and colonial legacy by updating the school curriculum.
Online activism does not start and end with posting a black square on your social media, and nor is it reliant on personal finances. These are just a few ways of showing your solidarity with Black Lives Matter protestors, regardless of your personal circumstances.