All across social media, users have been posting a black square in an attempt to spread an anti-racism message and show support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Apple Music is also marking the campaign, along with the Beats 1 radio station.
Beats 1 Shows Support For Black Lives Matter
When your load the Music app, it displays a black screen with a message:
In steadfast support of the Black voices that define music, creativity, and culture, we use ours. This moment calls upon us all to speak and act against racism and injustice of all kinds. we stand in solidarity with Black communities everywhere.
Tapping the ‘Listen Together’ button takes users to a live broadcast of the Beats 1 radio station. The station is broadcasting music from a wide range of Black artists and artists of color. Much of it is tackling the issues of racism and police brutality. The message is also being broadcast.
[Apple Donating to Equal Justice Initiative and Other Non-Profits Following George Floyd Death]
Charlotte:
In times of profound social upheaval, whether playing out in the bustling streets of Johannesburg or Hong Kong, the Squares of Tianmen or Tahrir, the shanty settlements of Rio or the West Bank, in the urban enclaves of Damascus or Tehran, whether amongst the Uighur in the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin, Syrian refugees massed on the Turkish border, Rohingya huddled in southern Bangladesh, or Americans in every state across their nation asserting their first amendment rights of speech and assembly to voice their grievances, ensemble, against generations-long systemic abuse, privation and wanton loss of life – in a word, humanity’s tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free, or simply to breathe, none of us can avert our eyes from their plight or shut our ears to their soul-wrenching lamentation, even when we try so very hard to do so. We are riveted to their humanity by our own.
In such times, it is easy to overlook opportunities to contribute to their betterment and thereby our own, but opportunity is imbued throughout the shared culture that binds us. This applies no less to the corporate world than it does to governments and to common people. Apple is not simply a corporate titan or a global brand, though both are true; Apple is a global cultural change agent. It not only sets trends, it reshapes norms and human interactions. It redefines not simply what is acceptable, but what is cool, appealing and therefore inclusive. These effects on our culture are synonymous with Apple’s brand and mission, which is why we feel not simply entitled but obligated to hold Apple accountable when we feel that they have failed that mission, even when other corporations have done the same or worse.
No one should be surprised that, in this current moment of upheaval, both natural and societal, Apple have called our attention to take a ‘pause’, as a reminder to take a moment of silent reflection to appreciate the procession of history before us, and our place within it, however apparently great or small. Apple, by embracing not simply the moment, but a movement for social justice and reform, does two things.
First, it sends a statement of solidarity, and a message not only of inclusion, but an endorsement of this demonstration of people power as being in harmony with Apple’s own attempts at unleashing human potential and contributing to human betterment.
Second, it is a tacit acknowledgement of Apple’s limitations as a corporate entity to impose social change on environments where the implements of that change, namely the rule of law courtesy of representative and liberal democratic government, do not exist. Where they can, Apple will openly stand with the downtrodden, and add their voice to those of the unheard.
One more thing.
By not linking this message with any product for purchase, or seizing it as an opportunity to tout a new service, Apple are making an implicit but unmistakeable statement that this moment is not about them, but about us, what we choose to do in this moment, and how we will use it to shape our future.
Appreciate the moment. Seize the opportunity to make us all a better people.