Anyone participating in Blackout Tuesday should not use the Black Lives Matter hashtag.
Blackout Tuesday is in full effect in the music industry. A day created to support and amplify Black voices, raise awareness, and truly reflect on what we all need to do in order to support the Black community at large, especially since the music industry has been thriving f Black culture since its inception.
With black squares filling up the timeline in solidarity with the Black community at a critical time in history, The Verge reports that the addition #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter hashtags in these posts have drowned out information pertaining to the Black Lives Matter movement including protests, donations, resources, and document police violence.
Blackout Tuesday, otherwise known as #TheShowMustBePaused, was launched by Jamila Thomas, senior director marketing at Atlantic Records, and Brianna Agyemang, senior artist campaign manager at Platoon.
“The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has prited predominately from Black Art,” write the pair at TheShowMustBePaused.com. “Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and success Black people accountable.”
Kehlani and Chuck Inglish were among those who highlighted the issue on social media with both Thomas and Agyemang addressing the overwhelming amount black boxes on the Black Lives Matter hashtag.
“If you use the Black Lives Matter hashtag, use it to share necessary resources and information for the movement. If you are not using it for that purpose, please type out Black Lives Matter with no hashtag, so we don’t not inadvertently mute viral dialogue in a sea black boxes,” reads a message on their Instagram page.
It should be noted that editing the caption does not fix this issue. If you have used the Black Lives Matter hashtag in your Blackout Tuesday post, you must delete and repost it to your page.