Amplification in Action

While Black Series | Racism

We often talk about amplifying Black voices, but what does this look like in practice? I got to find out for myself.

Was my content suppressed by Facebook?

The situation was that one of my articles appeared to be being suppressed by Facebook. It’s called The Loneliness of the Sole Black Employee.

People have had different messages about it from Facebook. The variations I know of are:

• This article has been reported as offensive

• This article violates community standards

• This URL is blocked

Read it for yourself and see if you can figure out why. I certainly can’t.

In addition, most of the other antiracism content I posted on Facebook in June and July has disappeared. There seems no rhyme or reason. I’ve since been able to reshare some of it, but I’m annoyed that all the comments and stories from other BIPOC have disappeared along with them. And I still can’t share the Sole Black Employee article, even when employing some of the workarounds like using the Medium profile URL or Twitter share URL.

The start of the anti-suppression campaign

One of my friends got incensed enough to launch an amplification campaign. I’m still not quite sure what lit her up, but she was a warrior queen on my behalf. She put out the word, and asked people to share.

My sister, an adept marketer, ramped things up by adding a couple of hashtags: #boostSharon and #amplifySharon. Another friend went one step further and pasted the “offending” article in full, asking people to share. Yet another friend took up the cause. Luckily for me, all of them have lots of connections.

Kinda sorta viral

At that point the Facebook anti-suppression campaign took on a life of its own, with people I didn’t even know sharing and commenting. My sister Lisa made it her business to find all the posts and tag me in the ones I didn’t see so I could respond to comments and thank people for their support. To date, it’s been shared dozens of times.

People also shared on other platforms. I wrote an article about the suppression, and shared it on both Facebook and LinkedIn, where other Black voices were mysteriously going unseen and unheard.

More people took up the cause on that platform. As I write this, some are still sharing both the original article, and the one about BIPOC content suppression.

It was a lesson in the power of collective action, as although I still can’t share the link, the article has now been seen by many more people than it would have otherwise in a very short space of time.

Reflecting on the experience

My friend’s original post touched me deeply, as did all the subsequent ones. I had no idea so many people cared enough about my content (and about me) to fight so hard to get it seen. The experience has more than validated my decision to write about my personal experience of racism in different countries.

I am humbled by the unwavering support, both from friends and total strangers, who swung into action without hesitation, and kept reposting as each link was taken down. I have tried to thank everyone, but if I’ve missed you, please tag me (home training, y’know).

I’m thankful for those who helped me test ways to figure out what was happening and to get the content out.

And I’m grateful for the renewed proof that we can achieve great things when we work together to fight racism and the suppression of Black perspectives. Let’s keep working, because this isn’t over.

© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2020

If you found this article interesting or insightful, I invite you to subscribe to my anti-racism newsletter to see more of my articles on racism and anti-racism.