Culture News
Does Jodie Comer Have a Pro-Trump Boyfriend? Does It Matter?
#JodieComerIsOverParty has been trending on Twitter for hours.
07.08.2020
It's exhausting to try to formulate an opinion on the morality of every celebrity the Internet takes it into its hive-mind to cancel.
Most recently, #JodieComerIsOverParty started trending on Twitter. Why? Because she MIGHT be dating a man who supports Donald Trump. Given Comer's role as Villanelle, a queer woman, on the hit show Killing Eve as well as her vocal support of causes like Black Lives Matter and LGBTQI+ rights, fans were quick to accuse the actress of hypocrisy.
<p>As <em><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/jodie-comer-canceled-boyfriend-trump-supporter-twitter-1516174" target="_blank">Newsweek</a></em> reports, "One angry tweet with more than 1,000 likes reads: 'Jodie Comer dating a Trump supporter, while she's portraying an LGBT character and reading poetry as an "ally" is not only wrong but disgusting. Also her posts about BLM now look like performance activism.'"</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p><br></p><div id="63a44" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7325d53a6d5a4e65f077da69db32e0b6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280730485669236736" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">jodie comer apparently dating a trump supporter is so on brand for a white woman “ally” i can’t find it in me to b… https://t.co/sjL9wE0Sk5</div> — ur head, rent free (@ur head, rent free)<a href="https://twitter.com/gl0ssbaby/statuses/1280730485669236736">1594184917.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br></p><div id="f8557" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="09d77ad041ed4a8c06572dc87c62c97b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280776380486168576" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">jodie comer chatting to her friends about this boy she met in america. https://t.co/mt7vwCUC8K</div> — jen (@jen)<a href="https://twitter.com/ohmyvillanelle/statuses/1280776380486168576">1594195859.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Many users specifically referenced Comer's collaboration with Amnesty International for Pride Inside—an online festival set up by Amnesty International, UK Black Pride, ParaPride, Gendered Intelligence, and Stonewall—calling her contribution "performative allyship." </p><div id="71b27" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d3510ead5796928208f4db8b2c71ca4c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280200004561506306" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">For #PrideInside: Award-winning actress and LGBTI+ ally Jodie Comer reads the beautiful first letter from Vita Sack… https://t.co/e5ZYrztiQw</div> — Amnesty UK (@Amnesty UK)<a href="https://twitter.com/AmnestyUK/statuses/1280200004561506306">1594058440.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br></p><p>While it's obvious that the LGBTQIA+ community in particular feels betrayed by Comer's supposed passive support of Trump's bigoted policies and racist, misogynistic, and homophobic rhetoric, many other fans leapt to her defense. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-633"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent1 - mid_content --></p><p><br></p><div id="e75b7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="216cc85673d5dd90fc168354bc843e6b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280822426658648066" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">so everyone is cancelling jodie comer for dating a republican...yet no one knows if the name they have matches up t… https://t.co/OnSa3aofzw</div> — 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔⚢ #BLM (@𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔⚢ #BLM)<a href="https://twitter.com/groovymoonbeams/statuses/1280822426658648066">1594206837.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br></p><div id="76b4f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="70c291e3c8d18967395b9d374d48d770"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280798192553123842" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Logs on to twitter. Wonders who is cancelled today. Ah, the insanely talented Jodie Comer for *checks notes* allege… https://t.co/GqHP8LTFj3</div> — MrsKrabapple (@MrsKrabapple)<a href="https://twitter.com/MrsKrabapple/statuses/1280798192553123842">1594201059.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it's worth noting that the evidence that Comer is actually dating a Trump supporter is exceedingly scarce. <br></p><div id="68d98" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="245bcb9c63b2354104d3b7eccb1079fd"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280718722701971458" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">a thread of receipts about jodie comers bf</div> — leo 🙊💖blm (@leo 🙊💖blm)<a href="https://twitter.com/juulsdayas/statuses/1280718722701971458">1594182112.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Comer confirmed in an <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/jodie-comer-on-love-killing-eve-season-three" target="_blank">interview for <em>British Vogue</em></a> in April that she was in a relationship. When asked about being in love, she stated: "I'm very much in it. I think love's the best. I'd been single for a while and just kind of going with the flow and doing my thing. That's the thing, isn't it?" She went on, "When you're relaxed and letting the universe do what it's doing, things kind of fall into place. Which is very much what happened." </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-634"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent11 - mid_content --></p><p>This admission spiked fan's curiosity, who soon came to believe—mostly based on Comer's Instagram stories—that she's dating an American named James Burke. The evidence that he's pro-Trump is decidedly minuscule and includes a screenshot of his supposed voter registration, showing that he's a registered Republican. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-635"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent2 - long_content --></p><p>Other evidence includes the fact that he's following Donald Trump on social media, that his dad has an American flag in his Instagram bio, and that he has a "'Murica" themed Spotify playlist. None of this concretely (or even vaguely) actually suggests Burke is a Trump supporter. </p><p>If you know anything about American voter registration, you'll know that many voters first registered in high school, choosing their political party affiliation before actually engaging in politics in any real way. Not only that, but many registered Republicans don't actually support Trump and only stay affiliated with the party in order to have a say in primary elections, either as a reflection of the values the less-radical version of the party used to stand for or simply because they haven't bothered to change their party registration. Additionally, plenty of anti-Trump voters take pride in their identity as Americans; that Burke and his family seem to be patriotic is not inherently indicative of conservative attitudes.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-636"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent22 - long_content --></p><p>Perhaps even more importantly, we don't even know for sure that this is the man Jodie Comer is dating. If she is dating a man named James Burke, then we certainly don't know if that's even his voter registration, Spotify, or father. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-637"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent3 - longer_content --></p><p>Admittedly, it's decidedly hypocritical if Comer is actually dating a person who is flagrantly racist, misogynistic, or homophobic while she's touting progressive views and claiming to be an ally to people of color and people within the LGBTQIA+ community. But we have essentially no evidence that that is the case; and until we do, judging Jodie Comer's dating life is a useless and ignorant venture. </p><p><strong>Not only that, but one has to wonder if public opinion would be so negative if a progressive male celebrity was reportedly dating a Republican woman</strong>. As has been pointed out in cases like the <a href="https://www.popdust.com/florence-pugh-zach-braff-2645677490.html" target="_blank">relationship between Florence Pugh and Zach Braff</a>, people are quick to judge the dating lives of women, while taking on a "boys will be boys" attitude regarding male celebrities relationships. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-638"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent33 - longer_content --></p><h2></h2><p>Even if Jodie Comer is dating a Republican, is it really any of our business? </p>
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Film Features
Stop Turning Exclusively to White Movies for Comfort
Breaking down the bias of comfort films.
07.14.2020
With the constant onslaught of complicated news that 2020 has brought, sometimes you just want to be able to shut off your brain, relax, and feel happy.
Enter comfort films. These are the feel-good movies that feel like a warm hug when you finish them, the ones that allow you to escape for a short while. We often turn to these types of films in times of trouble or extreme stress, and when we're not sure what films of this nature we should watch, we turn to the Internet for options.
<p>And the Internet delivers. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/05/14/comfort-movies-streaming-quarantine/" target="_blank">Numerous lists</a> of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200319-covid-19-comforting-films-to-watch-in-isolation" target="_blank">comforting films to watch</a> have been published across almost every major website since the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/12/comfort-films-to-watch-while-self-isolating-coronavirus-ranked" target="_blank">start of the March</a>. These lists often include old classics like <em>Roman Holiday</em>, new classics like <em>13 Going On 30</em>, and soon-to-be classics like<em> About Time</em>. While the films featured on these types of lists vary across genres and time periods, there is one thing that all of these lists have in common: They are almost exclusively white, heteronormative films. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>That is not to say that there is not any diversity. Gina Prince-Bythewood's directorial debut <em>Love and Basketball</em>, Alice Wu's recent Tribeca Film Festival award-winning film <em>The Half of It</em>, and Gurinder Chadha's star-making film <em>Bend it Like Beckham</em> make appearances on several lists. But by far, the majority of the films on these lists fall into a very specific bracket. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-633"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent1 - mid_content --></p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0OTQxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTQyMDE3OX0.9MXv_NuK2Sa_6CXEdUZXXu0srpuaHgAw8wum1Z0SEfc/img.jpg?width=980" id="c7dff" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c8ac42836b2ff35650e815c1e8bd6477" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Parminder Nagra and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Bend It Like Beckham">
</p><p>But with the <a href="https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/hollywood-diversity-report-2020/" target="_blank">landscape of Hollywood changing</a> and the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/07/01/886025141/the-academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences-invites-more-women-minorities" target="_blank">Academy becoming more diverse</a>, does it really matter if a curated list of popular movies from the past reflects a history that we're already aware has some issues?<br></p><p>The answer is: Yes, very much so. </p><p>When curators, critics, and list makers hold up a largely white, heteronormative selection of films as definitive of any aspect of pop culture, their blind spot helps to maintain the inequitable status quo that currently exists in the film industry. If when a person wants to feel comforted, the sole type of content that they're encouraged to watch is one from a specific racial background or sexual identity, they will internalize that. These lists are curated for joy, and if joy is constantly centered on whiteness, on heteronormativity, on a very limited sense of identity, we are ignoring entire swaths of human beings and their experiences. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-635"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent2 - long_content --></p><p>Changing the dynamics of our media and, by extension, our society is not simply about recognizing the trauma of oppression on-screen. It is about seeing these communities' joy expressed through the medium as well. This is why <a href="https://nerdist.com/article/black-joy-movies-tv-shows/" target="_blank">lists of films that center black joy</a> are being created as additional material to engage with when learning how to be anti-racist. It is why there is a <a href="https://www.themarysue.com/subversive-power-lgbtq-happy-ending/" target="_blank">push for more happy endings in queer media</a>. We change the status quo not simply by telling new stories or by telling stories of oppression, but also by seeking out narratives of joy from communities whose voices have rarely been centered. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-636"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent22 - long_content --></p><p>The limited scope of so many Internet lists also implies that comforting content centering these communities does not exist, and that is simply not true. When films that feature marginalized communities only end up on lists for marginalized communities, it's clear that these identities are still considered an "other". By ignoring these films—films like <em>Coming to America, The</em> <em>Birdcage, </em>and <em>Hunt for Wilderpeople, </em>films that made people feel seen, films that inspired the media and the creators we rave about—these lists are just reproducing the same problematic paradigms of the past and erasing the value of important works of art. Creating better media systems requires reckoning with how we look at past content, too.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-637"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent3 - longer_content --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0OTQ0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzk0ODAxNX0.dUxYR5pvdzTLtbFrZF4n6QCVVB_x5yl51gSwHFoPUg4/img.jpg?width=980" id="8e330" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="727114542c442f743d81a897b4deb780" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Julian Dennison in the woods in the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople">
</p><p><br></p><p>This does not mean you need to throw away these lists or stop watching <em>You've Got Mail</em>. But it does mean that you should reflect on what type of films you watch that center marginalized communities, and whether that encompasses what you watch when you want to feel good. Are you only watching Black trauma narratives or are you also watching romantic comedies starring Black protagonists when you've had a bad day? </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-638"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent33 - longer_content --></p><h2></h2><h2></h2><h2></h2><p>It also means that curators, critics, and creators of lists should move beyond their personal comfort zones and learn to seek out films that speak to experiences other than their own. Because, as it turns out, a lot of those films spark joy, too.</p>
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Culture Feature
K-Pop Stans and TikTok Teens Trolled a Trump Rally—What Could They Do Next?
K-pop fans and Tare quite powerful and should not be underestimated.
06.22.2020
The incredible, sometimes supernatural power of K-pop fans and TikTok teens is on display once again.
One week ago, President Trump's campaign boasted that huge crowds were supposed to attend his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The president originally scheduled the rally for June 19th, which is Juneteenth, a day that Black people have long marked as a celebration of freedom. This year, Juneteenth saw protests around the world, sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Trump ended up moving his rally to June 20th, one day after Juneteenth. His choice of date and venue—Tulsa, Oklahoma—also hit a nerve partly due to Tulsa's violent history: It was the site of a brutal massacre that saw at least 300 Black people killed by white nationalists in 1921.
<p>Trump's choice of venue also stung because of the rampant levels of COVID-19 in Oklahoma. The state reported a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/oklahoma-reports-highest-ever-daily-covid-19-cases-after-trump-tulsa-rally-1512486" target="_blank"><u>record number of infections</u></a> on June 21, the day after the rally, which was to be held indoors and without masks. The state currently has over 10,000 confirmed cases, and on Sunday it saw a 143-person spike.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-633"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent1 - mid_content --></p><p>So needless to say, Trump's rally was a bad idea. Yethis campaign initially touted it as an event that would show the strength and enthusiasm of Trump supporters. But what was supposed to be a comeback rally wound up being much smaller than anticipated. Only 6,200 people showed up, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands expected to turn out. Trump's e return to the White House was a "walk of shame" that immediately spawned internet memes and gleeful tweets.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-634"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent11 - mid_content --></p><div id="30b06" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eb7076108a88f325283b01a795316f31"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1274602646746300416" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Some music accompaniment for Trump’s Walk of Shame as he arrived back at the White House from his #EmptySeats… https://t.co/cmWByxKmCG</div> — P A T • L E E (@P A T • L E E)<a href="https://twitter.com/pat_lee/statuses/1274602646746300416">1592723926.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br></p><h4></h4><h4>Crowds at Tulsa Fail to Materialize, and K-Pop and TikTok Teens Say They're the Reason</h4><p>Perhaps nobody turned out to Trump's rally because the economy is collapsing, or because America botched its handling of COVID-19, or because the country is erupting in (very necessary) protests, or because Trump's tweets are growing increasingly unhinged.</p><p>But there was another reason why crowds failed to materialize for the Commander-in-Chief. A coterie of K-pop stans and teenagers on the app TikTok say they came together and inspired thousands of people to reserve tickets to the rally—with no intentions of showing up. It seems to have worked.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-635"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent2 - long_content --></p><p>"My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America's teens," tweeted Republican campaign strategist Steve Schmidt on Wednesday. Over the weeks before the rally, thousands of kids registered to attend the Tulsa event; it practically became an Internet meme.</p><div id="f6e43" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7b01b316e50cc46969bfb31ff205c725"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1274486428160811009" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This is what happened tonight. I’m dead serious when I say this. The teens of America have struck a savage blow aga… https://t.co/TfrAewC6yV</div> — Steve Schmidt (@Steve Schmidt)<a href="https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/statuses/1274486428160811009">1592696217.0</a></blockquote></div><p>No one is exactly certain how the campaign started, and it may not even have come from a teenager at all. The politics site<em> Iowa Starting Line</em> found a TikTok video posted on<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@maryjolaupp/video/6837311838640803078?u_code=d02112ddc4lam0&preview_pb=0&language=en&_d=d02112ddc4lam0&share_item_id=6837311838640803078&timestamp=1592741814&utm_campaign=client_share&app=musically&utm_medium=ios&tt_from=twitter&utm_source=twitter&source=h5_m" target="_blank"> June 11 by Mary Jo Laupp</a>, which may have been the origin point of this whole thing.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-636"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent22 - long_content --></p><p>In the video, the grandmother suggests that people book tickets to "make sure there are empty seats." She also tells viewers how to stop receiving texts from the Trump campaign (simply text STOP).</p><p>Regardless of who proposed the idea first, it took off among the Internet's ranks of activists, who encouraged their followers to repost and then remove their posts so the prank wouldn't be discovered by the Trump campaign.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-637"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent3 - longer_content --></p><p>Trump's campaign manager, Brad Pascale, took the rally's low attendance quite hard. "Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don't know what they're talking about or how our rallies work," he wrote. It sounds like Brad and his friends—who boasted about an expected attendance of over 800,000—was just trying to cover his tracks.</p><div id="09ee3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="01b102ff7d0f8c5df1072f95cca476aa"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1274726161101344768" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Trolls thinking they hacked rally tix don’t know how this works. Lame trick tried many times.
We weed out bogus R… https://t.co/LJyHoD7WcP</div> — Tim Murtaugh - Download the Trump 2020 app today! (@Tim Murtaugh - Download the Trump 2020 app today!)<a href="https://twitter.com/TimMurtaugh/statuses/1274726161101344768">1592753374.0</a></blockquote></div><p>In the meantime, TikTok teens and K-pop stans have been celebrating their victories.<br></p><h4> From K-pop to TikTok: Digital Activism Finds New Life Online</h4><p>This isn't the first time that K-pop stans and TikTok users have forayed into activism, and judging by the events of the past few weeks, it likely won't be the last.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-638"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent33 - longer_content --></p><p>K-pop stans, or super-fans of Korean pop bands like BTS, are a globe-spanning group. Most are in their teens or twenties, and they're united by a sense of adoration for the stunning talents of their K-pop favorites and a talent for getting things to go very viral.</p><p>Over the past few weeks, K-pop groups and their stans have come together to support America's anti-police-brutality and anti-racism Black Lives Matter movement.</p><div id="f1671" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1ce2eff675590bcace9d65946fa41b4e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1273296026816983041" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">.@OfficialMonstaX voices support for Black Lives Matter movement at #TIME100Talks. “We believe that it’s time to ac… https://t.co/KePrZFvGq0</div> — TIME (@TIME)<a href="https://twitter.com/TIME/statuses/1273296026816983041">1592412404.0</a></blockquote></div><p>They recently raised over <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/k-pop-group-bts-donates-dollar1-million-to-black-lives-matter-fans-match-donation/ar-BB15d2Ca" target="_blank"><u>one million dollars for Black Lives Matter</u></a> and civil rights organizations, matching a donation from superstar boy-band BTS. They <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/kpop-stans-blm" target="_blank"><u>spammed white supremacist hashtags like #WhiteLivesMatter</u></a> with videos of Korean pop stars in an attempt to fracture white nationalist organizing efforts.<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-639"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent4 - longest_content --></p><p>And last week, when the Dallas police department asked for videos of protestors committing crimes, K-pop fans <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/k-pop-fancams-protect-black-lives-matter-protestors-dallas-police" target="_blank"><u>spammed their systems with more videos of their favorite groups</u></a>.</p><p>Last month, fans of the group BLACKPINK made an effort to minimize conversation about Lady Gaga's collaboration with the group in order not to detract from the Black Lives Matter message, which was blowing up in the wake of George Floyd's murder. </p><p>K-pop fans can frequently be seen sharing petitions, donation links, and information about protests. Often inspired by their favorite performers' calls for justice, many fans say they feel they're supporting their favorite bands by fighting for social change.</p><p>K-pop fans are quite powerful and should not be underestimated. In 2019 they sent a total of six billion tweets, according to <a href="https://www.adweek.com/digital/twitter-saw-6-1-billion-k-pop-related-tweets-in-2019/" target="_blank"><u><em>Adweek</em></u></a>. Posts by small accounts will be retweeted hundreds of times in minutes. It's clear that whatever cause K-pop fans elevate inevitably gains some cultural resonance.</p><h4>Organizing On TikTok: From the App to the Streets</h4><p>TikTok is also having a moment. The app boasts every kind of video, but there is a bustling subsection of TikTok filled with <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/teens-activism-protest-tiktok/" target="_blank"><u>activist messages and calls to action</u></a>.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-640"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent44 - longest_content --></p><p>The app is full of videos about organizing, defunding the police, protesting, and the like. Users have also begun posting videos in which they confront their parents about racism, videos that often end in tears. "</p><p> "Suddenly, dance breaks were supplanted by more meaningful content: demanding justice for <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/BREONNATAYLOR" target="_blank">Breonna Taylor</a> and other Black Americans, sharing information on how to be a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/allyship" target="_blank">proper ally</a>, and highlighting <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/blackownedbusinesses" target="_blank">Black-owned businesses</a>, among other posts," writes Christian Allare in <em>Vogue</em>. "The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has over 12 billion hits."</p><div id="08428" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8d575f4cac3a2a4a96c406e68b898bf1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1274528209971875842" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">OMG y'all. I ran in to tell my son (14yo) how Gen Z (his gen) punked @realDonaldTrump w/ticket plan on TikTok and I… https://t.co/8VSAWqRl86</div> — Kerry Neville 🇺🇸🇮🇪 PhD (@Kerry Neville 🇺🇸🇮🇪 PhD)<a href="https://twitter.com/mommamaybemad1/statuses/1274528209971875842">1592706179.0</a></blockquote></div><p>These videos have sparked conversation and controversy in their own rights, and for good reason. <a href="https://www.popdust.com/is-tiktok-safe-2641467790.html" target="_self"><u>Questions about censorship</u></a> have plagued the app since its inception, and the app has been accused of burying content by queer, fat, or non-white users. It was also accused of sabotaging Black Lives Matter content early on; a glitch that made Black Lives Matter videos look like they'd received 0 views caused <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/tiktok-has-its-arab-spring-moment-as-teen-activism-overtakes-dance-moves/ar-BB14Wb1z" target="_blank"><u>a small reckoning within the company</u></a>.<br></p><p>In the end, it makes sense that teenagers' favorite platforms would be full of calls to action and shrouded in complicated political implications. Today's teens and young adults are suffering through COVID-19, Trump, climate change, an economic crisis, gun violence, and many other terrible, unpredictable things. Adults have failed them, in many ways. Now they're fighting back–and winning.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-641"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - bottomofpage - bottom_of_page --></p><p><strong>So what might TikTok teens and K-pop fans tackle next?</strong> Perhaps they could start with racism in their own communities and on their own platforms; certainly <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/irl/tiktok-racist-algorithm/" target="_blank"><u>TikTok has its issues with that</u></a> (some say its algorithm might even promote white supremacist content), <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/k-pop-idols-accountable-for-racist-actions" target="_blank"><u>as does the K-pop community</u></a>.</p><div id="575dc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="418f3e74a5956beb7e952923499491e9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1275149878017081344" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">You can’t talk about K-pop fan activism for Black Lives Matter without talking about racism in K-pop. We bring some… https://t.co/EWH1UydQGj</div> — Arielle Duhaime-Ross (@Arielle Duhaime-Ross)<a href="https://twitter.com/adrs/statuses/1275149878017081344">1592854396.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Perhaps these Internet-savvy Zoomers could mobilize to make sure that young people *actually* vote in elections—starting with the primaries (New York's primary is on June 23rd!) and continuing to November.<br></p><p>Maybe they could mobilize to fight climate change and environmental racism. Maybe they could bully Jeff Bezos until he donates most of his billions. Maybe they could end late capitalism. </p><h4></h4><h4></h4><p>And of course, they should keep fighting for the Movement for Black Lives, uplifting the messages of activists that have been doing this work for years and holding adults who don't do their jobs accountable, starting with the President of the United States.</p><h2></h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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