On February 14, 2018, we all watched helplessly as footage surfaced of the complete and utter horror the young people and the staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL endured at the hands of Nikolas Cruz. The 19 year old mass murderer left 17 people dead in his sick path of destruction with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. Following the deadly Florida massacre, many were left wondering what could be done to help soothe the pain of that community, as well as assure that such horror never happens inside of a school again.
Almost immediately after the shooting, the surviving students worked to organize the March For Our Lives, by starting a Go Fund Me account. The upcoming march will be in protest to put pressure on government officials, to enforce much stricter gun laws in America.
Everyday people and celebrities began to take action, and within the first 24 hours of the fundraising campaign, the survivors had already raised more than $2 million. People like Oprah Winfrey, joined other celebs, such as actor George Clooney and his wife Amal, who first donated $500K to the cause. Then director, Steven Spielberg, also stepped up with a $500K pledge of his own.
Oprah tweeted this message on Twitter:
George and Amal, I couldn’t agree with you more. I am joining forces with you and will match your $500,000 donation to ‘March For Our Lives.’ These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said we’ve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard.
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) February 20, 2018
Twitter Fans React & Raise Questions About Racial Bias
It was a beautiful thing to see and the celebs’ generous donations were much appreciated. However, it didn’t take long for people, like Oprah, to get called out on Twitter by many who quickly noticed the difference within the celebrities’ financial response to March For Our Lives, versus the Black Lives Matter movement.
The major difference the Twitter-verse pointed out, was the difference in the demographics between the primarily Caucasian Florida high school victims and the thousands of Black people who were consistently getting slaughtered by trigger happy cops. Many are now calling out Oprah and others for their lack of financial donations and support for the BLM movement, now that they have a movement in which the celebs stand behind to compare it to. Here are some of the public’s reactions:
https://twitter.com/lyineyes57/status/966394745416306688
https://twitter.com/daniecal/status/966130405823803392
https://twitter.com/kaycetta/status/966152675594326017
https://twitter.com/rwaysek/status/966448646953762816
https://twitter.com/HD4safety_USAF/status/966348290072735745
https://twitter.com/rgay/status/966381473317117952
Gosh. This is amazing. And a I'm not being sarcastic. I have to be honest and say that I'm a bit taken aback (and a bit hurt) that those of us who were in the streets in the past five years for Black lives didn't receive this type of reception or public support. https://t.co/HLYXTcVdfL
— Charlene A. Carruthers (@CharleneCac) February 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/BRVDSHXW/status/966470682556157952
I do not blame you!!! They have deliberately given Black youth a different narrative!
— Dawn Cherri Snell (@REVDCSnell) February 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/brightpinkinLA/status/966449730019500032
What do you think about this ILOSM fam?’ Are people coming down too hard on these celebs? Or are they doing the right thing by calling celerities out on the obvious?
