Emily Ratajkowski Slams People Doing The ‘Bare Minimum’ By Just Posting Black Squares

Emily Ratajkowski doesn’t want to see your performative posting. 

The model slammed people posting black squares on social media on Tuesday, as part of the Blackout Tuesday campaign, without taking any further action.

“So easy to post a black square. I’m seeing people who haven’t posted in YEARS come on to post a black square,” she wrote. “Your silence was embarrassing and now you can feel good about yourself while doing the bare minimum. This is the worst kind of [virtue] signaling.” 

Ratajkowski called the signaling “dangerous” as well. 

“The mainstream media isn’t blacking out today, the MAGA dudes in my mentions aren’t blacking out today. Clogging up the only reliable news source and communication channel ISNT HELPFUL,” she wrote, before providing a video showing the squares taking over the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Instagram. 

The “Blackout Tuesday” campaign, in which people post black squares to their Instagram grids, was created by two Black women in the music industry, executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, as part of their #theshowmustbepaused movement to protest the police killing of George Floyd and other instances of police brutality against Black Americans. 

“The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominately from Black Art,” the message explaining the movement says on The Show Must Be Paused website. “Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and success of Black people accountable.” 

When people began posting the black squares on Tuesday, June 2, others were quick to point out that posters were incorrectly the using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter alongside the #BlackoutTuesday squares. This flooded the BLM hashtag and prevented information about protests, donations, the coronavirus pandemic and more from being seen by those looking at the hashtag page.

Activist Kenidra Woods brought attention to those posting alongside the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. 

“We know that’s it no intent to harm but to be frank, this essentially does harm the message,” Woods wrote. “We use hashtag to keep ppl updated. PLS stop using the hashtag for black images!!”

Many in the music industry also spoke out against the black squares and people using the BLM hashtag incorrectly. 

“This is not helping us,” Lil Nas said, adding “ppl need to see what’s going on.”