In recent days, social media has shown itself to be a valuable platform for making people aware of the genuine injustice that still pervades our society. In fact, our modern social media craze may be greatly responsible for the increased capturing of evidence of police brutality, simply because it has made people used to whipping out their phones on the street to take video. The sad truth is that America seemed to need these awful deaths of individual black people to go viral to shock us into acknowledging the need to deal with a deep systemic problem.
The movement for change has erupted over social media, Instagram and Twitter blowing up with blacklivesmatter hashtags and posts. Speaking out online is a good start. In George Floyd’s plea “I can’t
breathe”, we hear the voice of a human being crying out for mercy. For pro-lifers, it calls to mind the pain and helplessness of every unborn abortion victim- while Floyd begged for his life, his killers were just as deaf to his cries as if he had not been able to voice his pain. It is right for us to see this connection and be inflamed with a desire to express solidarity against societal evil.
However, we have to be careful about letting social media become the primary outlet of our response. Aside from reports that flooding these forums with re-posts of the atrocious murder videos can be traumatic to viewers already now hyper-aware of racial tension, doing so can also lull us into a false self-righteousness, as if by retweeting a post against racism we’ve shown our allegiance and now are at leisure to sit back. In order to keep this movement going, it’s essential that we keep out social media virtue signaling. In the same vein, efforts to exonerate oneself on social media by making others a
scapegoat lead to re-posting of threads just as prejudiced as the racist actions they revolt against. For instance, making vile, degrading claims like “all cops are bad” trend only leads to more hostility and
distracts from the issue at hand.
At the same time, while virtual action (not counting links to donation sites and informative resources) cannot be the extent of our response, we have to be just as wary when taking the opposite approach. Physical action that takes the form of violence against innocents is never a good answer to injustice; it brings us down to the level of the aggressors we are trying to oppose and perpetuates the cycle of death and destruction, often wreaking the worst damage among those very poor and vulnerable who are least able to afford it. Rioting and looting hurts black communities, spreads fake news and gives the movement a bad name. Black organizers heading protests in Minneapolis and other sites of escalating violence repeatedly called for white rioters committing vandalism to stop; communities already dealing with grief and fear must not now be burdened with further economic hardship.
What, then, should we be doing to help? Pro-lifers are aware of how difficult it is to fight injustice against innocents carried out by the very systems that are supposed to protect and care for them, but
that does not mean we give vent to meaningless rage. Rather, we direct our righteous anger, legally and peacefully, at changing the cultural norms which have given rise to these corrupt systems- Police forces that kill citizens act out the same evil as healthcare facilities that kill children. We give aid to organized demonstrations, donate to trustworthy funds, educate ourselves, and contribute to persistent
discussion. We lead by example and help maintain awareness of racism and injustice, without causing further suffering, to ensure that so many lives were not lost in vain; we petition relentlessly for change. And as always, we pray- for healing, for an end to violence, and for the redemption of victims of injustice
as well as its perpetrators.
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