Or do they not owe us anything at all?
In recent years, social media influencers have taken on a celebrity-level status. This February, Alix Earle appeared in Bad Bunny’s Superbowl halftime show in La Casita alongside notable Latino celebrities like Jessica Alba, Karol G, Pedro Pascal and others. Her appearance in such a culturally and politically significant performance, without expressing support for the Latino community or calling out ICE’s inhumane treatment of immigrants, led to social media backlash. Alix Earle’s controversy raises the question: do influencers and celebrities owe us anything in regards to activism? In today’s political climate, I believe the answer is yes.
Social media functions as a business. Influencers post content for us to enjoy and we repay them with likes, comments and follows. These social media interactions turn into sponsored posts and brand deals, which in turn becomes a lot of money. For some of the bigger influencers like Alix Earle, a single sponsored Instagram post could be worth over $45,000. We as consumers deserve to know where our capital—whether that is money or social media interactions—is going. If influencers are going to profit from our engagement, they owe us transparency on their political loyalties.
If we are making the point of boycotting businesses like Target, Tesla, Amazon, Spotify and other companies that are supporting ICE, Trump or Israel, we should be doing the same to influencers. We should be supporting the influencers that are taking a stand for our immigrant communities and human rights in general, and boycotting those who publicly support Trump. In addition, we should be calling out those who refuse to take a stand. I know that content creators fear sharing their political beliefs will lead to them losing followers, but in this political era, staying silent is no longer okay. It’s time for all of us to speak up for what we believe and face the music. Not explicitly condemning this administration is the same as compliance.
People may argue that everyone has the right to their own opinion and while I agree with that, I also believe that I have a right to choose who I want to support and to be a responsible consumer. I do not want to support—financially or otherwise—anyone who is pro-genocide, racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic. I do not want to support anyone who believes that ICE’s killing of Renee Good or Alex Pretti was in any way justified or alright. I do not want to support anyone who believes that being undocumented warrants being torn away from your children and detained in inhumane conditions.
People may also be concerned about performative activism, aka posting about an issue but not actually doing anything proactive about it; however, bringing any attention to an issue is extremely useful. While ideally everyone would be donating money, going to protests or contacting their political representatives, expressing support and spreading awareness is still valuable. Especially since influencers have huge platforms and are able to reach and mobilize a lot of people. Reposting a GoFundMe page without actually donating will still put it on thousands more people’s feeds than it might have reached otherwise.
Art, reading, music, makeup, clothing, exercise, sports and cooking are all political. It is time for us to become mindful consumers and support those who support us. So when politics becomes an issue of human rights, it is not okay for influencers to stay silent or ride the fence.