A Lesson of 2020: Virtue Signaling Is Not Action

There’s a huge difference between slapping a Black Lives Matter slogan on a website or storefront and actually investing in a Black neighborhood to improve the quality of education.

That is my general conclusion from our summer of racial unrest: we’ve seen a lot of virtue signaling and very little real action.

There are a host of ills in America. The revolting killing of George Floyd while in police custody a few months ago, and the equally revolting recent shooting of Jacob Blake, have shone a harsh light on one of those ills—police violence— as well as the larger issue of racism.

If we’re serious about progress, the real question is: How do we help cure these societal ills? Here’s how we won’t—by settling for virtue-signaling slogans or engaging in verbal combat on social media.

We’re living at a time when screaming has replaced action; anger has replaced resolve; “performing” justice has replaced real justice. Combine that with the COVID-19 crisis during an election year, and it’s clear that we’re especially unprepared right now to handle the serious issues that have triggered such rage across the nation.

We’re living at a time when screaming has replaced action; anger has replaced resolve; “performing” justice has replaced real justice.

The hard work of real justice has always been rather tedious and devoid of drama. Working in the inner cities to help individual Black lives and families, and using the instruments of government to fight for genuine reform, won’t get you another 100,000 followers on Twitter.

Ambitious activists and politicians know all too well that they’ll get a lot more attention if they paint a slogan on a street or kneel in silence wearing kente cloth. But as Arimeta Diop sharply noted on Vanity Fair, “white members of Congress wearing kente cloth can’t help but seem unnecessarily performative and, at worst, pandering.”

When I see companies express their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, my cynical gene kicks in, and I wonder: What are you really doing to help Black lives beside post a slogan on your website and spend millions on commercials showing your solidarity? What if you spend that money to reform rather than perform? What if you used your expertise to roll up your sleeves and make a real difference?

When NBA players decided to boycott some games this week in their anger over the shooting of Jacob Blake, I couldn’t help but think: Why don’t you instead keep playing and donate your salary for the rest of the season to Blake’s family and the cause of police reform? Wouldn’t that make a stronger statement?

Millions of tweets have flown through the digital universe this summer expressing outrage, frustration, anger and exasperation. Has any of it helped Black lives?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t express ourselves and scream and protest. Of course we should. But if we just stop there— or worse, allow protests to disintegrate into vandalism and violence– real progress has little chance.

Progress requires real action, which requires being informed, knowing what to invest in and where you will be most effective. Virtue signaling on social media requires little knowledge or action.

Ironically enough, it is a tweet from Rabbi David Wolpe that best captures this phenomenon: “The greatest danger of social media is that people will think their virtue lies in their opinions and not their actions. You are not what you post but what you do.”

Indeed, we are what we do.

This year, more than ever, it seems that many Americans have become performers rather than reformers.