With massive protests happening around the country, a pandemic sweeping local communities and secret police kidnapping people left and right, what am I doing since the world is currently on fire? That’s easy: I’m watching the YouTube beauty drama surrounding Tati Westbrook, Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson because I am trash, and trash is attracted to garbage.

For a short recap, last year YouTuber James Charles was accused by Tati Westbrook of tricking heterosexual men into thinking that they were gay. As a result, many people branded James Charles as a sexual predator, resulting in the loss of many subscribers and brand deals. Now, Tati Westbrook claims Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson fed her this misinformation, leading to this whole dumpster fire.

Unfortunately for Jeffree Star, he has also been accused of racist behaviors by Black YouTubers such as Jackie Aina. Of course, he made an apology video that looks like it’s straight out of a Vogue magazine, where he kind of acknowledges his past controversies but not really. But, out of nowhere, he says there are more important things to focus on, like the Black Lives Matter protests and the fact that Breonna Taylor’s killers are still on the loose.

To me, this feels disingenuous because not only does it not relate to his overall apology, but he uses it as a prop to distract from his racist behaviors. It’s like “I cAN’t bE RAciST, i’M sUPpoRtINg THeSe MoVeMenTS,” while not linking to any petitions or organizations where people can donate to (here are some links, by the way). But it got me thinking about performative activism, or the appearance of standing up for a cause, but doing nothing to promote the cause or actively hurting the message.

We have seen this before. For example, during Pride Month, we see a bunch of companies changing their logos with a rainbow aesthetic. But once the clock strikes midnight on July 1, they all revert back to their boring company logos. Often, these companies don’t donate some of their wealth to organizations that support LGBTQ+ causes, and they may engage in some homophobic and transphobic acts.

For example, Forbes reported companies like UPS, Comcast and Home Depot have donated several million dollars to U.S. politicians that promote an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, despite the fact that these companies change their logo to the pride flag and claim to champion gay rights. These corporations don’t care about gay rights and actively try to harm the community, but they will happily try to profit off of them.

But even on a lesser note, regular people can engage in performative activism as well. A while back, a lot of people, including NC State students, were posting black squares on Instagram, which was known as Blackout Tuesday. However, this act received criticism because it was initially posted with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, which made it difficult for people to find information on what organizations to support, protests to join or people’s experiences with racism or police brutality.

That hashtag was then changed to #BlackoutTuesday. But in my opinion, it’s just empty service. Oh, you posted a black square and changed your social media profiles to Black Lives Matter? Congratulations, you solved racism! I know these people mean well, but it just seems like empty gestures without addressing the problems at hand.

It’s not just saying “I’m not racist; therefore, I’m not a part of the problem.” It requires a lot of deep introspection, such as how do you treat people from different backgrounds, what policies do you enforce that have disproportionate outcomes on certain groups of people, what explicit and implicit biases do you have and so on. 

I know, as college students, we are broke, busy with class and other activities and stressed out about the pandemic. But there are ways we can support causes with our limited resources. The easiest way is to vote in the upcoming election. There are a lot of seats up this time around, including the presidency, so vote for someone whose agenda you agree with.

Another way to be an activist is to join an organization or volunteer. Granted, most clubs and organizations might not be operating or have limited capacity because of the pandemic, but this is college. You are bound to find something that can help local communities or bring awareness to certain social issues. For example, holding the police accountable for their actions, helping various communities impacted by the pandemic and so on.

There are other ways to engage in social and political discourse, but these are some that come to mind. Regardless, we have the power to stand up and fight for causes, despite the limited means to do so. So instead of putting on a performance, let’s change society so that everyone is protected. After all, the world is our stage.