Not A Trend: How Can I Use This Anger?
Written by Simi & Ava - Co-Founders of Not A Trend
After schools closed last year, like many others, we found ourselves with an abundance of time and not very much planned to fill it with. We had signed up to join the Changemakers Lab (CML) in the Easter Holidays, hoping it would be a welcome break from revision for GCSEs we ultimately never sat. With the program switching to Zoom, we now had an allocated time slot (a Monday afternoon) for ranting about various injustices with a group of young people we had never met.
Following the murder of George Floyd and renewed public interest in the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the many conversations we and our friends were having around the same time was one of frustration at the performative nature of the anti-racist movement. Here we were, in the midst of a programme designed to create meaningful change, and it was as if we were counting down the days for the trending hashtags on Twitter, the ‘show you’re not a racist’ Instagram story chainmail (seriously, who came up with that?) and the news coverage to die down as it always seemed to. Though lockdown meant that more people had time to voice their outrage on social media and through protests, with things like Blackout Tuesday and companies’ half-hearted promises to ‘do better’, we weren’t all that hopeful for radical change and the dismantling of the systemic racism and injustice perpetuated in our society for generations.
Although we were only two Year 11s from South East London, we thought we’d aim to be part of the solution to this problem. Beginning as an idea between various other like-minded friends, we soon publicly launched the idea of a Doorstep (even now, we have to check that we’re not accidentally saying ‘Doorstop’) Campaign to mark the one month anniversary of George Floyd’s death. One of the key aims of the event was promoting the themes of accessibility and inclusivity in activism, values we still try to keep at the forefront of everything we do. In the midst of promoting the event, we were conscious of steering into the dreaded field of performative activism; fleeting actions that ultimately led nowhere. And so, we also launched Not A Trend, a campaign helping to ensure conversations around anti-racism are long lasting. Social media accounts and a cool logo created (thanks Canva), we spent the summer hosting a number of events and with the support of CML, beginning to enact some long term plans.
Now at the stage of starting a brand new pilot scheme ‘More than a Month’ with a small number of schools, guiding them through their decolonising efforts, we’d like to say we’ve gotten to the stage where we can manage our activist lives whilst trying not to fail our A levels! Of course it can be a struggle at times, but this is what performative activism forgets; unless the world changes overnight, unfortunately, racism is most likely not going anywhere anytime soon. That’s why you need to be in it for the long haul, sustaining pressure and holding those in power to account long after the protests have ended. Fighting for change isn’t always large-scale actions or disrupting massive power structures (but that can definitely be a good way to get things done), sometimes it’s an email or a simple conversation that can make the biggest difference. One thing we’ve learnt from the peaks, and inevitably troughs, of public support of any struggle, is that blind anger and outrage can be good for awareness, but not extremely useful for change that lasts generations.
So we ask you, next time something makes you angry, ask yourself, ‘How can I use this?’ Be strategic, work with others, and use the tools at your disposal, no matter how useless they may seem.
Not A Trend is a youth-led, but not youth exclusive, campaign aiming to ensure that actions and conversations surrounding race and anti-racism are long-lasting.
IG: @blm.notatrend
TWT: @not_a_trend
Email: blm.notatrend@gmail.com
