By Samantha Jimenez and Aileen Delgado
To stand in solidarity with Sudan during the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, millions of social media users have joined in on the worldwide “Blue For Sudan” movement. However, the so-called “movement” has become more of a trend rather than an attempt for change.
The hashtag “#BlueforSudan” began circling the internet when Sudanese activist Mohamed Mattar was killed while trying to protect two women during a protest. One of Matter’s cousins then took the incident to social media in hopes to continue his legacy, as well as spark a widespread phenomenon.
The young activist’s profile picture at the time was reportedly blue, which was also known to be his favorite color. As the cause began to gain recognition through several social platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, many users began to change their profiles to the same blue icon.
“Once he was murdered, his friends and family changed their profile picture to match his, and eventually other people began to join in,” said Shahd Khidir, a friend of Mattar’s. “Now [the colour] represents all of the Sudanese people who have fallen in the uprising.”
Although the message intended by the online community was initially to spread awareness, most accounts now partaking in this trend rarely ever give an explanation to what the blue icons stand for. This has led to multiple accounts only knowing one detail: it supports Sudan. No explanations, no conversations, just another internet bandwagon.
To truly educate the public about Sudan, accounts could instead share articles that explore the problem in depth. With only a small group of people knowing the full story, and others knowing little to no information surrounding the matter, no change is being made.
Since the trend began almost two months ago, there has been no major protests in the U.S. and people are already forgetting about the ongoing struggle in Sudan. Nothing more has been done besides standing with Sudanese protesters who can’t even see our support due to the internet blackout.
Several users have attempted to donate towards organizations deemed to be credible by a variety of accounts on Instagram. Accounts such as @SudanMealProject and @SudanMealOfficial even promised users to donate meals to over 100,000 Sudanese civilians in exchange for reposts and likes on their posts.
However, these promises were soon broken as the accounts were immediately debunked and revealed as forms of attention seeking. When reached via Instagram direct messages, the administrators of the accounts could not provide any proof of affiliation with any aiding organizations.
Even if users had the initiative to donate, many of these resources have a very minimal chance of making it across the globe.
“It’s incredibly difficult to send meals to Sudan,” said Joe English, a UNICEF communications specialist.
The intentions for “#BlueforSudan,” although pure, are not being carried out. Yes, it’s great to watch the internet come together to shed light on another country’s severe status. Most of the time, horrific events like this occur and the news never even reaches fellow Americans— or we simply don’t care enough.
The icon signifies means of representation without any action, however, there is not much action our generation can take in the first place. The act of spreading awareness cannot resolve global issues at hand, and our voices can only take us so far. It takes much more than a couple thousand teenagers in America to save billions of lives miles and miles away.
Blue icons do not have the power to make the same executive decisions that the government is capable of. Blue icons cannot send troops out to Sudan or resolve their internet blackout. Blue icons are not able to save countless lives that are currently at stake due to nationwide abuse, rape, and genocide.
“#BlueforSudan” is just another excuse for our generation to feel like they are involved in making a difference. In reality, millions are still dying while people take two minutes to change a profile picture.
