{"id":65907,"date":"2025-08-07T20:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/65907\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T20:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:09:18","slug":"rosalias-gaza-controversy-raises-valid-questions-about-performative-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/65907\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosal\u00eda\u2019s Gaza Controversy Raises Valid Questions About Performative Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spanish fashion designer Miguel Adrover made waves last week after he posted a screenshot of a controversial exchange he had with Rosal\u00eda\u2019s team. In it, her team asked Adrover for a custom look<\/a> for the Spanish singer, and Adrover\u2019s team reportedly responded by saying, \u201cMiguel doesn\u2019t work with any artist who doesn\u2019t publicly support Palestina.\u201d<\/p>\n

The caption on Adrover\u2019s Instagram reads<\/a>: \u201cDoing \u2018The Right Thing\u2019\u2026.Silence is complicity, and even more so when you have a big loudspeaker where millions of people listen to you when you sing. That\u2019s why you have the responsibility to use this power to denounce this genocide. Rosalia, this is nothing personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, Rosal\u00eda posted an Instagram story in response expressing that she was, in fact, horrified at what was happening in Palestine and expressed gratitude for people who were in the frontlines of the war. Then she added: \u201cThe fact that I haven\u2019t used my platform in a way that aligns with others\u2019 styles or expectations absolutely does not mean that I don\u2019t condemn what is happening in Palestine.\u201d Commenters had mixed responses about Rosal\u00eda\u2019s post. <\/p>\n

For the past several days, I haven\u2019t been able to stop thinking about this interaction, mostly because I\u2019m a fan of Rosal\u00eda\u2019s music, but also because it brought up a pretty valid question about what truly constitutes activism. <\/p>\n

When she pointed out that she might not be protesting in line with people\u2019s \u201cstyles or expectations,\u201d I thought about anxieties that I\u2019ve had myself while on social media: Should I be posting more about the injustices being committed in Gaza? If I do, is it actually going to help anyone? <\/p>\n

And more importantly \u2014 am I posting because I genuinely think it\u2019s going to help, or am I posting to signal to others that I care? I\u2019m fairly certain others like me are contemplating the same anxieties.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I empathize with Adrover\u2019s stance. We live in a time when speaking out about Palestine isn\u2019t always the safe thing to do. And many famous artists hesitate to speak out because it comes across as choosing a side, therefore alienating fans and ultimately messing with their status and income.<\/p>\n

Whether people agree with how he handled this particular situation or not, he did get Rosal\u00eda to publicly take a stance on the issue when she hadn\u2019t before. It could be argued that we live at a moment of such moral urgency that a little bit of prodding and social pressure isn\u2019t the worst thing, but I also believe that supporting Gaza has to amount to more than just reposts on social media. <\/p>\n

Many of us who do care about social issues have become increasingly fatigued with social media activism, especially under the current administration, when we\u2019re seeing new attacks on marginalized communities<\/a> every day. A 2022 study even suggested that engagement with online activism can lead to increased mental stress<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Rosal\u00eda has a right to her opinion about people having different styles of protest \u2014 being vocal online is not authentic to everyone. But as a person who believes that not expressing a stance is, in itself, an indication of being complicit with oppression, Rosal\u00eda should be backing up her sentiment with evidence that she was participating in some other way. It could be by donating money<\/a> to organizations behind the scenes, seeking out and hiring people of Palestinian descent for projects, or even incorporating her support for Gazans into her art. Her point fell flat when she didn\u2019t provide other ways in which she\u2019s actively participated in some way.<\/p>\n

If there ever was ambiguity about the war in Gaza being a humanitarian disaster that we should all be condemning, there\u2019s certainly none now<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.<\/p>\n

Thank you again for your support along the way. We\u2019re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The question now is, how do we all participate in ways that feel authentic to us and are actually productive, and not based on virtue signaling and projecting valid frustrations on people who, ultimately, aren\u2019t fueling the problem. If there\u2019s one lesson I learned from 2020\u2019s \u201cracial awakening,\u201d it\u2019s that our attention is a limited resource, and we should be very intentional about how we use it.<\/p>\n