While the record industry are honing their profound Instagram prose and really powerful uses of Helvetica, volunteers are making simple action cards – relevant everywhere from the USA to the Philippines.
And yes, spreading this to people you know in your home country/language is better than supporting major labels.
These actions matter to music, because our artists and our communities are on the front lines. The single most important thing we can do is to support their safety. And the reason this is in the news this week is that people are being murdered. We really shouldn’t lose sight of that.
Please note of course before we check the home-spun resources, you can first check the official Black Lives Matter page:
But the participatory, grassroots effort is important, too, worldwide – this being just one example.
In English – with donations, political actions, resources, and more:
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
A list of translations, including Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French:
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#trans
There’s even Hungarian:
This doesn’t just impact the USA, obviously. Now is the time both to support African American activists and communities in danger, but also to make sure we don’t continue to center on the US and American exceptionalism, which are part of the problem there and abroad.
What I mean by all that gibberish is, it’s really important there’s also a card for the Philippines:
https://junkterrorbill.carrd.co/
Filipino version (full support to friends in Manila, up against this and COVID-19 – heck, I even stand with you on stopping the Jeepney phaseout):
Lastly, speaking of Korean, it seems even KPOP is getting in on this:
The actions are there. So the question for the music industry and club culture and music technology is – what will we do to provide support for people when they don’t feel visible, and when they’re not in the headlines, and when social media isn’t trending?