​Virtually Protesting For #BLM

By: Raeesa Rashid
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​Virtually Protesting For #BLM
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A lot of people who are in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement cannot go outside and physically protest because they are in a high-risk category for obtaining COVID-19 or somebody they with is.

Firstly, if you are in a high-risk category for obtaining COVID-19, or you live with a person, or multiple people who are in a high-risk category for obtaining COVID-19 then please, I cannot stress this enough, do not go outside or leave your home to physically protest. It is very dangerous.
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If you are unsure about whether you or somebody you live with is in a high-risk category for COVID-19 then please read information from this link.
Now if you cannot physically attend a protest, do not worry your voice still can be heard, by virtual protesting.

What Is Virtual Protesting?
Protesting using the internet. You don’t have to leave the house to virtually protest, it can be done from your phone, laptop, or any digital device that connects to the internet. What is cool about virtual protesting is anybody in the world can see your protest, so you could be educating anyone in any part of the world with access to an internet connection.

What Are Ways I Can Virtually Protest?
One way to virtually protest is to share content online such as:

• Informative posts. People need to understand issues such as racism, how silence can equal violence, systemic racism, etc. So if you see an informative post which you think your friends could do with reading share it with them.
• Peaceful protesters. I do not think peaceful protesters are getting the credit and recognition they deserve, so if you see the content of a peaceful protest, share it and glorify the peaceful protesters because if we are violent people will see the violence more than they hear our message, violence overshadows our message of “Black Lives Matter” so please do not be violent or glorify violence. Only spread peace, and glorify peace.
• Petitions and donation pages. If you see a petition page, share it with your friends, and if you see a donation page and certainly if you cannot afford to donate, share it with your friends, chances are somebody who follows you will be able to afford to donate.
• The latest news. News is happening so rapidly, people can barely keep up with it. So if you see a news story, make sure you fact check it, make sure it is credible, and then share it with your friends to keep them up-to-date with the news. It’s difficult to keep up-to-date with everything considering all the things happening in the world so fast.
• Your opinion. If you have an opinion on a news story, a certain quote, or just something you thought of in general, share it! Make sure it is respectful and non-offensive. And if you have an opinion on a news story about something you think might happen, or something you think is happening but you cannot prove it, make clear that what you say is an opinion and it’s not a fact from a news story. If you don’t make that clear, you could easily mislead people and confuse people and they will lose trust in our cause. 
• Videos showing racism. If you see a video of somebody being racist, a video showing white supremacy, a video giving a real-life example of any form of racism especially systemic racism, share it! So more people become aware, and see examples of racism and bigotry within our society.
• Don’t forget about their names. That may sound like a ridiculous thing to say, but with lots of things happening at once for some people, it can be easy for people to forget who they’re doing this for. We’re doing this for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, all the other black lives lost to police brutality and racism.​

​Educate yourself about black history. 

There is so much history we don’t know. So much that we don’t get taught in school, so it’s our job now to watch documentaries, read articles and studies all about the history we don’t know and making ourselves less ignorant. Here are some good places to start.

Educate yourself about police brutality. 

Black people make up 13% of the USA population yet are 24% of who the police kill. That’s just one statistic. But there are so many more. So take it upon yourself to search for the statistics, stories, and information and find more out about police brutality.
The more knowledgeable you are on the issue, the easier it will be to protest against it. Here are some good sources. 

Sign petitions. 

Everyone with access to the internet can sign an online petition. It costs nothing, except for a single click. It’s so quick and easy and petitions can be effective. You signing one makes all the difference because your sign is you making a statement about what you want and will help bring us a little bit closer to justice. 

Donate if you can afford to. 

​Not everybody can afford to donate and don’t feel bad if you can’t because there is still a lot you can do. But if you can afford to donate then please do donate, even a small amount will help, there are so many worthy BLM causes you can donate to on GoFundMe. Here are some sources for petitions and donations.

And don’t forget…
Do not forget why we are doing this. We’re doing this because black lives matter. We’re doing this to fight racism and systemic racism within our countries and society. We’re doing this for justice. We’re doing it for all their names, even ones we haven’t heard of. We’re doing this, we’re fighting this fight so this is not a “current affair” or “latest news” for the future generations and our children, and we want this to be a history lesson for them. We can’t give up, because if we do, we will never really obtain justice.

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Author

Raeesa is a 17-year-old computer science student and writer from the UK. With being a girl who is partially-disabled in code, she has become an advocate from girls in code and disabilities in code. She believes in encouraging people from diverse backgrounds to get into code and young people too, given she started coding at the age of 10 herself. She believes writing for GenZ Writes will allow her to give advice to people, voice her opinions, and give her a platform to represent all the communities she is a part of and to eliminate stereotypes, all in a way she would like to as GenZ Writes gives her the freedom as a writer to do so.