Posted on 11/18/2024 2:38:12 AM PST by EBH
After Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election, TikTok creators began crafting “allyship” accessories as a show of solidarity with people of color. Instead, they left marginalized voices feeling unseen.
It began after a contentious election, when Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to become the next president of the United States. That's when TikTok got to talking. “Fellow white women, how are we signaling to each other now which side we are on?” said content creator Libby Louwagie, who goes by Libby Rae Lou on the platform.
What followed was a quickly-hatched plan by left-leaning white Democrat and liberal women who voted for Harris to display their allyship through, somewhat curiously, DIY crafts. Specifically, friendship bracelets with blue beads and blue string. The thinking was that, when out in public, you could easily identify who is a Trump supporter and who is not by checking their wrist for a flash of blue jewelry.
The idea took off. On TikTok, content creator @witchywoosel’s video promoting the blue bracelet friendship movement racked up 5.1 million views. She and other supporters saw it as a symbol of solidarity with people of color against the backdrop of an election that sparked an uptick in racist harassment and virtual attacks on women. For white women, the blue bracelets also served another purpose: to separate themselves from those white women; the 53 percent who cast their ballots for Trump, despite accusations of sexual abuse and his previous term in office where he led the charge on rolling back reproductive freedoms.
But over the weekend, as videos of women stringing together their blue friendship bracelets gained millions of views, things began unraveling. The tenor of the conversation changed. While the bracelets were initially embraced by some online as a symbol of support, a sign that the wearer was a "safe person," others quickly called the method another gimmicky form of performative virtue signaling.
“I see the bracelets, and other physical symbols like it, as a call by white people to be reassured by marginalized communities,” says news and entertainment content creator Kellie Chudzinsk. “It’s no one’s job to validate your morals or character.”
The blue friendship bracelet is hardly the first form of empty allyship to arise in response to a Trump election. In 2017, thousands attended the Women’s March, a protest the day after Trump’s first inauguration, wearing homemade pink caps. The so-called “pink pussy hats” were intended to be a sign of resistance, inspired by Donald Trump's bragging about sexually assaulting women on Hollywood Access. However, they demonstrated a very narrow expression of who faces oppression by only representing genitals that are pink (white women)—inherently excluding women of color, trans women, and those who are nonbinary. It centered on whiteness as the only demographic that faced women’s rights violations, and wearing one didn't necessarily come with tangible action to support all women.
It happened again in June 2020, when in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, many white social media users took to Instagram to post an image of an empty black square—co-opting a movement started by two Black women to raise awareness of the music industry profiting off Black artists. The posts, which used hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM, also drowned out crucial information shared by organizers, including where to protest and donate. It ultimately became another example of performative allyship that lacked any meaningful action to truly support the cause.
Sabotage. Trump voters can wear the same thing. Minds blown.
A warning label to men. Stay away.
If you shave your head people will think you have cancer or an illness.
And not having sex means Planned Parenthood will be out of business in about two years.
All examples of short term thinking by liberals. Keep it up, you're doing fine.
Why would you date a psycho who wants to cut off your wang because you voted for Trump? Or they want to poison you with a witch’s Brew, or stab you to death like that seattle power lesbian did to her father!
They absolutely need to wear a blue bracelet and may I suggest they also wear a blue triangle on their breast near their heart as well. What better way to advertise the resistance.
I sometimes wear a blue bracelet, near an orange one. I’m a Gator fan. Maybe that will just confuse these girls.
Yes, please self identify as Lib. Make or life so much easier!
We signal by just being nice people, and the occasional right leaning items of clothing like cowboy boots, construction, farm or gun themed hats and shirts, but we don’t do market research on “how to signal” like those weirdos.
“Fellow white women, how are we signaling to each other now which side we are on?”
I thought it was the blue mullet?
See how racist libs are? “Fellow White Women.” such a cult with the bracelets and hair and the no sex thing. lol. It’s a cult.
It’s a good idea. It makes it easy to identify women to avoid
” in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd by a white police officer”
If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth, comes to mind here. Anything to promote their flawed point.
Do you really want to be mistaken as leftist?
Plus, I’m a 6’6” burly cowboy (a real one). If I wore a bracelet of any kind, half the fags in Sante Fe would be following me around in the field.
See how racist libs are? “Fellow White Women.” such a cult with the bracelets and hair and the no sex thing. lol. It’s a cult.
Hah! A new addition to my "Bullsh** Words and Phrases" list!
Nature is full of signaling devices. Rattlesnakes have markings and a noise device that tells others, I’m dangerous keep your distance. Same with wasps and bees.
There already is a signaling device that says, “I’m a dipshit.” Wearing a mask on the mouth or chin.
The question is; how many cats does each one own?
Good. Less abortions as a result.
I suggest tattooing a “L”in the middle of their forehead
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