Kourtney Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Ashley Graham, Hilary Swank, Alex Morgan and Diane von Furstenberg are just a few of the Hollywood A-listers participating in the #ShareTheMicNow campaign, where white women with large fan followings are allowing black women access to their social media so they can further their cause.
“When the world listens to women, it listens to white women,” reads the official statement of the #ShareTheMicNow campaign. “For far too long, the voices of black women have gone unheard, even though they’ve been using them loudly for centuries to enact change.”
Conceived by Bozoma Saint John, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Glennon Doyle and Stacey Bendet Eisner, the social media campaign is being led by black women sharing their stories and experiences on the Instagram accounts of the white women in the entertainment industry.
The intention behind the #ShareTheMicNow campaign is to magnify black women and the important work they are doing while furthering important activism relationships to create a network of distributors who know and trust each other.
Some of the black women who took over high profile accounts include writer and activist Opal Tometi, who used US model Graham’s account, fashion and beauty editor Kahlana Barfield Brown took over Pretty Woman star Robert’s account and businesswoman and marketing executive Bozoma Saint John took over Kourtney Kardashian’s account and actress, businesswoman and transgender activist Angelica Ross ended up using Hilary Swank’s account, along with many more.
“Today, more than ever, it is necessary that we create a unifying action to center black women’s lives, stories and calls to action,” the statement of the #ShareTheMicNow campaign added. “We need to listen to black women.”
The social media strategy comes just a week after last Tuesday’s #BlackOutTuesday, wherein Instagram users from all over the world refrained from putting up anything on their Instagram accounts except plain black squares for one whole day in order to show solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
The anti-racism tirade all over America has been rekindled by the brutal May 25 killing of black man George Floyd, who choked to death as a white Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck whilst trying to arrest him. The words “I can’t breathe,” allegedly Floyd’s last, have become somewhat of a slogan for the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
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