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Little Black Girls Are Not Our Saviours And Should Not Be At Protests

As a non-parent, I feel unqualified to dictate how people should raise their children. But as a young black woman who was once a little black girl, it’s impossible for me to ignore the imagery of girls that looked like I once did, marching alongside adults and questioning police officers in riot gear.

Though I assume the activism is well-intentioned, the proliferation and praising of these viral photo ops grow increasingly disturbing by the day. To make matters worse, the mainstream media that pick these photos up tend to frame storylines that sanitise the radical consensus of these protests.

In general, images of children posted online by strangers have never sat well with me. As a mentor who has worked for a charity supporting under 18 year olds, I recall the stringent safeguarding rules I was subject to – one of which was not to post my mentees on social media. That, however, was a matter of contract. I’m aware that the average person with a camera does not uphold this obligation and even so, it is easy to escape civic duty in times of unrest. We are still in a viral pandemic, starved of social interaction, and people are mobilising in swathes to fight for their right to stay alive. History is happening today and of course we must capture and share the moment, that is the un-codified law of social networking.