A pair of Instagram influencers in the United States has been slammed online after texts revealed they’d discussed getting drunk and organizing ‘riot outfits’ before attending.
In messages that were shared to ‘close friends’ on Instagram, and seen by 7NEWS.com.au, micro-influencers serafina.0 and tamella_k discuss whether they should attend the protests following the death of George Floyd.
But critics are more concerned with the messages that discussed getting drunk and dressing up.
One of the women said, “let’s get drunk and go. Is that like so dangerous”, to which the other said, “omg I’m so down. let me find a riot outfit”.
The pair attended and tamella_k shared images online with the caption “pls do ur part but do it safely. #bml go out there and do ur part we owe it” - incorrectly using the #BLM, or Black Lives Matter, hashtag.
“They didn’t even care enough to get black lives matter correct like at least try to be performative,” a user wrote on Facebook.
‘Performative activism’
Hundreds of others have accused the women of attending the protests as a social media stunt that served more as “performative activism” than genuine support.
“This is sad and disgusting they are just doing it for an Instagram photo,” said one Twitter user.
“This is literally so many people attending these things lol. They don’t care about the cause, they just want Instagram content and something to do,” said another.
However, others defended the pair saying “at the end of the day, it’s a movement”.
“If people like this want to get involved to be ‘part of the trend’ then they’re accomplishing what we set out to do,” he wrote.
“Spread awareness and show the government the sheer amount of numbers that think they’re wrong.
“Who cares if these girls are doing it for the wrong reason as long as it’s being done.”
‘I’ll do better’
While the woman who shared the images has since deactivated her Instagram account, the other has issued an apology.
“Yesterday I did something extremely ignorant by glamorizing rioting on social media,” serafina.0 wrote.
“As overwhelming as the constant hate/death threats have been since the post went viral, I am grateful to be held accountable for this insensitive mistake.
“I’ll do better.”
She told 7NEWS.com.au: “I made a mistake and I have no problem spending the next years of my life-redeeming myself and educating myself so it doesn’t happen again.
“I didn’t know what performance activism was. I had never heard that term, I thought just showing up as part of doing my part and for the record, I never got drunk prior to the protest but I did make a joke about it which was equally as bad.”