As protests condemning last week’s horrific, senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spread from the US to cities around the world, many celebrities are using their platforms to address and educate their millions of followers on the truth about systemic racism.
But while millions were posting black squares to their Instagram feeds yesterday in honour of #blackouttuesday – the idea being that freeing up the time usually dedicated to social media would encourage people to educate themselves on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement – Lizzo, who lived in Minneapolis early on in her career, instead used her voice to talk directly to her fans about the importance of speaking out and keeping up this momentum.
“Protest is not the end of progress, it is the beginning”, she wrote in the caption accompanying one of her posts.
In the video, the star addressed the different roles that both black and white people must commit to in order to move this movement forward and ensure it doesn’t end at a flippant, tokenistic social media post.
Instagram / @lizzobeeating
“Black people: This is your daily reminder that it is not your job to educate people on racism or white privilege”, she said. “It is exhausting, and if they don’t see it or believe it by now they don’t want to. There are Googles and there are books and they can do that for themselves.”
“White people: This is your daily reminder that as long as you stay silent you are a part of the problem. I know you’re not racist, but you have to be more than that. You have to be anti-racist. Speak up.”
“And to all the influential people who have spoken up, thank you so much for your allyship and your support. Protest is the beginning of progress, not the end of it. And now that the protestors have everyone’s attention, what are the next steps that we’re gonna take to make sure that we’re actually moving forward, and we don’t go back to this bull****.”
“Now is the time, the world is standing still and waiting for action. Let’s make progress.”
Captioning the video, Lizzo wrote: “I wonder what would happen if all the big companies and celebrities who have showed support on social media came out and used their platform to let activists and protesters speak and be seen?”
“I wonder what would happen if we allowed the outrage to have positive influence in our local government?”
“What would happen if those in power defunded the police & dismantled their racist culture and corrupt power structures? Cities are burning, are you watching?”
“I stand with Minneapolis. I believe in us. Change is gonna come.”