On May 29, Chrissy Rutherford set up her phone in her bedroom and pressed Record. A beauty and fashion expert with over 145,000 Instagram followers and a decade-long career working in fashion media (including at Hearst), she was accustomed to using social media to express herself. But this time was different. "I don't know George Floyd and the many that came before him," she said to the camera. "But understanding that someone has been murdered for having the same skin color I have, it's a lot to deal with. And the last 36 hours, I've just felt so overwhelmed trying to process what's happening."
Rutherford, 34, described the physical toll the news was taking on her: stressed body, stiff neck, lack of sleep. She went on to explain the differences between covert and overt racism and stressed the importance of speaking out on social media, rather than letting the news cycle pass. "It's not enough anymore to just be like, 'I have good intentions. I'm not racist.' You need to actually take the time to educate yourselves to be antiracist. And that's where white people are falling short right now," she told her followers. "Antiracism is the name of the game right now. And that's it."
As the video racked up millions of views, Rutherford began to receive a flood of DMs, texts, and calls from non-Black friends and acquaintances in the fashion world, most of whom were unsure of how to proceed on social media during such a critical moment. They needed guidance on continuing to live life online in a way that was both tactful and impactful. And many of their peers had made missteps they wanted to avoid. "A lot of influencers I'm friends with—and these are top girls—were all blowing up my phone, wanting to get my advice," Rutherford tells me. " 'Should I post? What should I say?'"
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