"Bracelets? We don't need no stinkin' bracelets!"
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.
I have a blue bracelet made of beads. If anyone asks, I’m surprise them & sing YMCA and do a famous dance for them, lol!
They don’t need blue bracelets, they’re easily recognizable because they’re ugly and stupid which is a definite sign of a liberal.
Well, that would certainly make it easier for the animals to find their meat..
I suggest we convince them to dip their head in blue ink to make it 100% sure we can identify them.
Or as their problem seems to be permanent the could hire a Tattoo firm to color their heads blue.
The dingy masks over their faces could be a clue, too.
Maybe the Kraft could start wearing armbands to identify each other. Maybe put and ancient peace symbol on it, say a swastika. Something that represents their ideology.
Kraft— left. Typo.
Never happened. Conversation about the nature of power taken out of context.
the brutal murder of George Floyd by a white police officer
St. George died of a self inflicted fentanyl overdose. The press really needs to be held accountable every time they tell these blatant lies.
Think of how much fun you can have with them and a blue c—k ring.....
I totally agree
“Unless you walk around with your wrists up in the air nobody will see the bracelets.”
Prior to the election, the first noticeable indicator not to hit on a woman was a wedding ring. Easily spotted. The blue bracelet will shine like a warning beacon attached to a klaxon horn. Prior to this, there were some visible indicators: nose ring, blue hair, etc. A plus is it also identifies those with deep seated, but not outwardly visible insanity. I am all for them wearing stupid signs, or somehow identifying themselves so that we may more easily avoid them.
Funny how that works, I too am a cowboy and used to frequent (in my hat and wranglers etc...) a certain restaurant in the Dallas area that was known as a gay enclave (the food was great) and I would be fought over by the waiters to take my order etc...
It’s an ongoing joke to my wife and daughters.
No clue why, nor do I care, other than it can be annoying.
These people never left high school.
That would surprise them!
Wedding rings mean nothing to rutting dogs. Blue bracelets will mean nothing either.
Such adornments will only sharpen their fangs.
The virtue signaling never ends.
I’m sure the blue bracelet crowd would welcome a “black” woman of various colors who spent over a billion bucks in 107 days entertaining her village idiots and is still in debt up to her ass, in the White House.
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars. But the Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.