The Screenshot: Week of September 28
We’re focusing on injustice this week, here’s your TL;DR: Justice for Breonna Taylor, TIME that these icons were recognized, The Uyghur people’s plight, What is ACAB a rallying cry for, the newest filter driving the internet, #soover2020 — and what can you do to tackle injustice?
Trending
1) It’s about TIME these Gen Z inspirations were included on the Most Influential List!
2) This climate activist broke records for quickest to 1m Instagram followers… How fast did it happen?
3) Ever wondered what your Anime alter ego would look like? This Snapchat filter is showing us!
4) Gen Zers already saying good-bye to the year with this hashtag and it’s not even December yet!
5) The app allegedly appealing for Gen Z’s appetite for short-form videos is being sold off…
6) This viral TikTok video inspired Gen Z to get this symbol tattooed, but it has a TERRIBLE background.
Scroll for answers
Your A to Gen Z
ACAB / Gen Z lingo /
(Acronym)
1. Stands for “All Cops Are Bastards,” used as a result of frustration with the culture of killing and complacency in police departments across the country.
2. Love it or hate it, it’s a repopularized rallying cry at BLM protests that communicates real anger and frustration. It demands that police departments are wholesale changed to reflect a culture that’s more humane and more accountable. Until then, policing systems will not have the trust of Black and Brown communities.
Graphic art by Eloise Worth (@poli.sticks)
Ztat
The story of Breonna Taylor’s death has reverberated across the globe, touched hearts, and energized a growing movement. The facts have been talked about over and over through countless videos, tweets, and even a magazine cover. This week, her killers were acquitted for her death. The decision came through on the day that Emmett Till’s murderers were wrongly acquitted. This is a system that has yet to truly value the life of its own Black citizens, and it’s a system that desperately needs to change.
Group Chat
TL;DR: Justice for the Uyghurs
We also NEED to talk about the treatment of the Uyghur on the other side of the globe. The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority ethnic group in the Xinjiang region of China that the Chinese government is on record persecuting for decades, but now silence is not the answer.
The dire nature of the situation was exposed in 2017 when internment camps were reported. China completely denied their existence until this year when drone footage showed camp-like buildings, with recent reports saying there’s 380 (!) of them now. Religious freedoms have been curtailed; they’ve been subjected to measures from mandatory re-education, bans on Eid and fasting to sterilization. Mosques have been drastically reduced by size or demolished altogether. With over a million interned, it’s moving from persecution to genocide.
A global coalition, including vocal Gen Zers across social media, has emerged to pressure governments and companies to provoke the Chinese government to stop their actions. H&M have cut ties with a supplier using slave labor from the region. The fight for justice isn’t easy, and many consumers, not only Gen Z, expect businesses to be morally aware, active, and work towards solutions to global problems using the platform they have. We’ve seen how a religious minority being harmed like this ends. The plight of the Uyghur people will be a generation-defining issue, and inaction will be noted for generations to come. Join us on the right side of history and take action.
Check Out
WAYS TO TAKE ACTION
Know Your Rights Camp: A campaign founded by Colin Kaepernick, KYRC serves to educate young Black and Brown people by knowing their rights and empower their wellbeing. You can support them by donating here.
The Loveland Foundation: An organisation that gives back to Black women and girls through access to resources for healing, and therapy. With the injustice of Breonna Taylor’s case, JUV made a contribution to The Loveland Foundation this past week. Check out their work and donate here.
Advancement Project: A multi-racial grassroots movement creating a new narrative around race through innovative techniques – they made an ice cream with Ben & Jerry’s! Check out their work here.
Uyghur Human Rights Project: A project that’s been vocally fighting for justice for the Uyghur population since 2004. Here’s a list of seven things you can do to help; check it out here.
Answers to Trending
1) Megan Thee Stallion and BLM founders were included in TIME Magazine’s list. They SOOO deserve it.
2) 4 hours and 44 minutes. Sir David Attenborough, Gen Z’s spiritual grandad, is now on Instagram and broke records as he made his entrance. His first post? About saving the planet.
3) Gen Z have been going wild for the anime filter on Snapchat, and now #AnimeFilter has more than 100m views on TikTok and trended on Twitter for hours. Cultural exchanges have never been more epic!
4) #soover2020 is trending on TikTok. Do we need to say more?
5) Quibi was hailed as the Netflix of short-form content, but it has really been a flash in the pan and now it’s being sold for the best offer. Sadly, they couldn’t even piggyback off of TikTok’s recent problems!
6) The video’s creator made a symbol out of the way she wrote her Z’s to represent ‘unity’, without knowing it resembled the Wolfsangel symbol appropriated by the Nazis. She’s rowed back on it now, thank goodness, but unfortunately, those tattoos aren’t going away.
talk to us, not about us.
Jawwad Mustafa is the Director of The Screenshot Newsletter. He’s always got a drink in hand - either peppermint tea, peach iced tea or a vanilla latte. If you see him with anything else, you’ll really need to vote for him as The Imposter. You can find his creativity on Instagram at @JawwadTheCreator.