Utah Royals FC, Real Salt Lake Joins ‘Blackout Tuesday’ Social Media Movement

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs and Utah Royals FC participated in the “Blackout Tuesday” social media campaign in support of the fight against racial injustice.

Blackout Tuesday is a movement created to amplify the voices of black people on social media. The premise is to “mute” personal content and in place of it share content from black creators.

You can learn more about the movement below.

Real Salt Lake

We see you, we hear you, we stand with you. #blackouttuesday pic.twitter.com/ZSyoi7Hjrj

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) June 2, 2020

Utah Royals FC

We see you, we hear you, we stand with you. #blackouttuesday pic.twitter.com/Rz6RE6w6du

— Utah Royals FC (@UtahRoyalsFC) June 2, 2020

Real Monarchs

We see you, we hear you, we stand with you. #blackouttuesday pic.twitter.com/wZKr62gBgT

— Real Monarchs (@RealMonarchs) June 2, 2020

All clubs posted to social media with the caption “We see you, we hear you, we stand with you.”

Blackout Tuesday

Blackout Tuesday, a movement focused on amplifying the voices of people of color, began in the music industry with Atlantic Records and is spreading across all platforms of social media. Users are posting a black square to their profile, using #blackouttuesday. Organizers and creators are reminding people not to use #blacklivesmatter, as that hashtag is reserved to share information regarding the movement.

The death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests spurred the movement. Floyd was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a Minnesota police officer. The officer – who has now been fired and arrested – held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes on May 25, 2020. The officer involved has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

The movement was started by record executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agymang, according to Variety magazine. The movement was originally created using #TheShowMustBePause, but evolved into #blackouttuesday.

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A post shared by Atlantic Records (@atlanticrecords) on May 30, 2020 at 2:50pm PDT

“Tuesday, June 2 is meant to intentionally disrupt the work week,” they wrote, “The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. And industry that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people accountable.”

NBC News contributor and activist, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, posted guidelines to follow for those participating. She guided black people to continue posting while non-black people are encouraged to “mute” but to continue sharing content from people of color.

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🗣BLACK FOLKS, KEEP POSTING. TAG PPL IN THIS POST.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ -Either #TheShowMustBePaused got misunderstood outside of the music industry OR someone co-opted it to suppress Black voices and engage in digital protest suppression. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This does NOT sit right with my spirit & I can’t find a single source post or organizer or black led-organization that started this! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If I’m wrong, I’ll say I’m wrong. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you are BLACK post a black pic in solidarity, COOL. But do NOT silence yourself for the rest of the day!!!! NOW IS THE TIME OUR VOICES SHOULD BE UP FRONT. Whether you post your pain or joy, ALL of it is resistance because BLACK EXISTENCE IS RESISTANCE. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ IF YOU ARE NOT BLACK, Swipe for instructions on #AmplifyMelanatedVoices for how you can mute YOUR typical content and raise up Black voices. Also see the ORIGINAL #TheShowMustBePaused post-it was NOT this. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Information on social moves so fast and it’s not always vetted. We’ve ALL been there. No judgement-just a loving contribution to consider something different. I love y’all. Let’s get FREE.

A post shared by brittany packnett cunningham (@mspackyetti) on Jun 2, 2020 at 7:48am PDT