Tyra Adeniji
- Jun 1, 2020
- 3 min read

My life is more than a hashtag. Being Black is more than a trend.

Image of Black Lives Matter protesters standing in front of a gate covered by placards

Image by Étienne Godiard | Unsplash

Dear white people and white allies

Being Black is not a trend. Black Lives Matter is more than a hashtag. Don’t just post because you think it's the trendy thing to do. Be intentional and be genuine in standing in solidarity. Being an ally is more than resharing a post, it’s more than 140 characters, it’s about embodying your allyship in real life.

Resharing a post on social media means nothing when you won’t even talk to the black people in your lecture hall. Resharing a post on social media means nothing when your friends are being racist and you say absolutely nothing. Resharing a post on social media means nothing when you don’t support black people in real life. Let that sink in and let this be a moment for you to reflect about this.

All Lives won’t matter until Black Lives Matter

Say Their Names:

George Floyd

Breonna Taylor

Ahmaud Arbery

Belly Mujinga

When will you stop killing INNOCENT BLACK PEOPLE.

Enough is enough. Everyday waking up to see that another INNOCENT BLACK PERSON has been killed AGAIN. The trauma, the pain, the numbness, the tiredness, a feeling that you can’t explain.

When you see another victim of police brutality pleading for their last breath.

“I CAN'T BREATHE, I CAN’T BREATHE”.

It happens so often that we have even become desensitised to it and you could even say that we have become used to it.

The revolution will not be televised, instead our deaths are being streamed on social media.

Every day waking up to see more injustices take place, another police officer has got off scott free. Another case has been dismissed. Black Lives are constantly disregarded and black bodies are just treated as another statistic.

“Tell me what’s a black life worth, a bottle of juice is no excuse, the truth hurts” - Tupac Shakur

Black Lives Matter is more than a hashtag. Black Lives Matter is a fight for survival.

Black Lives Matter is an act of resistance, it is a movement against systematic oppression, structural violence, epistemic violence and state sanctioned violence. Black Lives Matter gives validation to black experiences, black voices and the very lives of black people. Black Lives Matter reminds us as black people that we are worthy and we are more than a statistic. It also reminds you to live your life with purpose, and lets you know that you matter, your voice matters and that you can and will be acknowledged. Most importantly it reminds you to not accept the murder of innocent black people as our normality, it reminds us that we must resist, we must lobby and we must do whatever we can until our voices are heard.

I will say it again in case you didn’t hear me the first time.