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| Black Moslems taking part in Friday's Prayers [Getty] |
In a world that is fast
becoming both borderless and closed, perhaps simultaneously, one would assume
that racism is but a foreign concept in such times. Alas, that is NOT the case.
A quick search on Google can unearth many incidences around the world that
deals with discrimination, civilian deaths, support groups that promotes racism
and so on.
However there has been a
growing trend amongst like-minded individuals who has taken up to the anti-racism
cause, albeit in a thoroughly modern manner.
Hashtags once exclusively
used on Twitter has been expanded to include sites such as Instagram, Facebook and
Periscope with people using it to take on a social and racial stand.
#blacklivesmatter,
#sandrabrown #jesuischarlie are some of the most iconic hashtags that has been
used by people all over the world, regardless of locale, race and religion to
make a stand against instances of colourism.
Going beyond the original
source and cases that inspired those hashtags, users are now enabling a bigger
role to be played as they do cross linking and connecting seemingly obscure
points to come under the black and white umbrella that is racism.
Unity across a continuum
is currently occurring with the use of anti-racism hashtags as it acts as an
informal call to action. It serves to unite people with similar stories, break stereotypes,
the spiral of silence once associated with the victims of racism is slowly
being eroded. Furthermore, it pushes the authorities to be on their toes, for
fear of being made into hashtags.
Perhaps it is time to
call anti-racism hashtags as what it really is, a new age method of
demonstration, peaceful to a certain extent and extremely potent if wielded in
the correct manner. Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi would have approved.
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