The Emptiness of Blackout Tuesday

The moment it became A Moment, the message got lost in the sauce

On the day after the pumpkin declared war and threatened martial law on Black American protesters, music executives from the industry’s most influential companies ordered all operations interrupted. The initiative and hashtag, #TheShowMustPause, created by Atlantic Records’ senior director of marketing, Jamila Thomas, and Platoon’s senior artist campaign manager, Brianna Agyemang, to “disrupt the work week” and, more importantly, “take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community,” scans strangely at a time when getting loud about frustrations in the face of fascism seems to be the current flavor. In a public statement, the two women cited the industry’s centuries-long exploitation of Black art and dared their fellow suits to hold “partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people accountable.”

The intent here is admirable, but the way it hit social media — mysteriously transmogrifying into the #BlackoutTuesday hashtag and convincing users that solidarity is as easy as switching out a selfie — is at best a little off-putting and at worst harmful in the ways it lumped in with #BlackLivesMatter and potentially overshadowed critical…