Is It Ever Okay To Go About Business As Usual After A Tragedy?

The nation is still reeling from the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the murder of five police officers and bystanders during a protest march in Dallas last week.

The racial and social-justice issues associated with these events affects all of us. As President Obama said, "This is not just a black issue. This is not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we all should care about."

But I would add that as an African American, and particularly as an African American who works in media, I feel particularly touched by these issues. I also feel a responsibility to comment on these issues on social media, to not just go about business as usual when tragedies like these occur.

And, unfortunately, tragedies like these are occurring with disturbing frequency.

As a writer and filmmaker, I depend on social media as an invaluable tool to raise awareness of my work. But, as many of us know, social media has its downsides.

When I awoke the morning of July 8, I was about to post my latest blog entry about the writing life. But when I turned on my computer and found out about the shootings in Dallas, I realized it would be inappropriate to "link-drop" my blog when so much pain and turmoil was going on in the world. 

At the least, self-promotion at a time like that would come across as being indifferent to such horrific incidents; at worst, insensitive.

Artists like myself who hold down day jobs are in a precarious position. On the one hand, you want to be "woke" - socially conscious, informed and engaged. On the other hand, my current and future employment often causes me to feel that I must walk on eggshells in fear that something I post could be misconstrued as offensive.

And it's so easy to offend these days.

I sometimes pre-schedule social media posts. While it may be convenient to write up tweets, Facebook comments and other social media posts in advance, you also run the risk of your pre-scheduled posts going out after a major tragedy has occurred overnight, making you look clueless and tasteless, as if you're like the infamous Emperor Nero, casually playing the fiddle as Rome burns.

What should be the guideline for when and when not to comment on a tragedy? When is it okay to go about business as usual without seeming as if you're uncaring?

In addition to the Dallas shootings, the deaths of Sterling and Castile and the Orlando nightclub tragedy last month, should I have also commented on the attacks at the Istanbul airport and in Baghdad? Does geographical and/or cultural distance from an event give you a free pass to ignore it? Of course not, but where do you draw the line?

These aren't easy questions and there are certainly no easy answers.