Celebrity Culture
Celebrities can be extremely influential to the masses, especially when they have a high status within their respective careers. From Twitter and blogs, to cash donations, celebrities have the ability to use their platform to bring awareness to important causes.
The Weekend
Shortly after announcing his donation of $50,000 to the University of Toronto to establish an Ethiopian studies program, The Weeknd made a second donation. He was praised in a multitude of Canadian newspaper headlines for his generous donation to the Black Lives Matter campaign – a generous donation of $250,000.
This is not the first time that the singer vocalized his support, as he joined in on social media with the trending #blacklivesmatter and #bluelivesmurder His support for the movement began after the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. He has encouraged others to join in and take action against racism, rather than sit back and wait for the change to come about on its own.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s new album Joanne did well on the charts, but also had hints of a political tone. In her song, “Angel Down”, she sings, “Angel down, angel down / But the people just stood around”. Lady Gaga has announced that she wrote the song with the Black Lives Matter movement in mind, as she felt that she could not stand around making superficial pop songs when there was so much tragedy in the world.
She felt that it was insulting to her audience to continue with meaningless chart toppers when she should be commenting on and bringing awareness to bigger social issues. She has always been referred to as an icon to minorities as she is quick to stand up for them, and has proved this once again with “Angel Down”.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian West expressed her emotions on the movement through an open letter on her website, addressing the Twitter trend #blacklivesmatter. It was published to her website in July of 2016, following the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. She writes as more of an open ended letter to her fans as opposed to a fact driven call to action as other celebrities, such as Beyoncé have. Rather than projecting further hate onto the police, she comments on how the problem cannot be solved through more hate and violence.
The letter ends by saying that hashtags are not enough to end racism. However, aside from making public social media posts, Kim Kardashian has yet to take any further action in her activism. Many celebrities do this; posting a tweet with ‘#blacklivesmatter’ and believing that this is all they have to do to show their support for a cause. It is often referred to as ‘slacktivism’.
More Celebrity Activism
Beyonce
We Are Here Movement
Chrissy Teigen & John Legend
Credits
AFP. "Making Waves: Lady Gaga Takes up Black Lives Matter with Sober New Anthem." The Tribune. 24 Oct. 2016. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Daly, Rhian. "The Weeknd Has Donated $250,000 to Black Lives Matter." NME. 14 Aug. 2016. Web. 4 Mar. 2017.
Global News. "The Weeknd Donates $250K to Black Lives Matter." Global News. 15 Aug. 2016. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Graham, Regina, and Anneta Konstantinides. "'Speechless and Numb' Kim Kardashian Posts Black Lives Matter Message Saying, 'I Do Not Ever Want to Have to Teach My Son to Be Scared of the Police'." Daily Mail UK. 8 July 2016. Web. 4 Mar. 2017.
Kardashian-West, Kim. "#BlackLivesMatter." Blog post. Kim Kardashian West. July 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
McNeil, Amy. "The Weeknd Donates $250,000 to Black Lives Matter Network, $50,000 to University of Toronto." National Post. 11 Aug. 2016. Web. 4 Mar. 2017.
Tesfaye, Abel. "@theweeknd." Twitter. 7 July 2016. Web. 4 Mar. 2017.