At 12:01 am Tuesday June 2nd, a new movement was started in the efforts to continue to spread awareness and honor the memory of the late George Floyd: #BlackoutTuesday. The new Blackout Tuesday (or Black Out Tuesday) campaign calls attention to the need for change with regards to police brutality, systemic racism and a broken justice system. But it also aims to hold business, corporations and celebrities accountable.

Major music streaming services such as Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Amazon have either cancelled programming or are using the time to promote Black artists. Spotify going so far as to hold 8 minutes and 46 seconds of momentary silence, representing the length of time Floyd stayed pinned by the neck under an officer’s knee causing his death. Although the former officer has been fired, arrested and charged, the Floyd’s family and the #BlackLivesMatter movement says this is not enough, calling for the immediate arrest of 3 additional officers involved in Floyd’s murder. And they aren’t the only ones as protests, both peaceful and violent have taken the U.S. and several foreign cities by storm. As soon as the hashtag Blackout Tuesday went live, social media became flooded with Black boxes, symbolizing that Black lives indeed matter. Celebrities and athletes have pledged not to post to show solidarity for the movements.

However, in the best interest of the movement it is important to not unintentionally hurt the cause. That being said, for those wishing to participate be mindful of the following:

How You Can Participate Online

Using the appropriate hashtags makes a huge difference. As many use both the Blackout Tuesday and Black Lives Matter hashtags together, the BLM movement becomes flooded, literally blocking out vital information for the general public to see. Official tags are #BlackoutTuesday #TheShowMustBePaused. Those who already posted under #BLM or #BlackLivesMatter, we ask you to delete the original post entirely, as they may remain linked to the tags even if they are no longer on the post, and create a new one with the appropriate tags.

This in no way should deter anyone’s involvement, only clarify so that your efforts and voices not only can be heard, but aim in the best direction for change. We here at Yankeekicks stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and outside of this article will refrain from making posts to our site for the remainder of the day. Please stay safe, informed, and positive.

Find out more about Blackout Tuesday