How a comedian started a TikTok movement for Gaza
Erin Hattamer wants you to #PassTheHat.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
You can get involved with Operation Olive Branch here. —Kate
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Social media activism can go one of two ways, and too often, it goes the “black square” route: Posting a black square during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 might have felt like action, but it was really only the appearance of action. Black square activism does not materially address the problem that it is highlighting. But when used correctly, social media can inspire movements that produce tangible change. Comedian Erin Hattamer recently launched one of these movements.
#PassTheHat, which began last month, is a project to get influential creators to help Palestinian families’ GoFundMes to meet their fundraising goals. The grassroots movement Operation Olive Branch vets the families. By both raising funds with their followers and making donations of their own, the participating creators are helping make it possible for their assigned family to evacuate to safety when the borders open. Not only does the project materially impact those in need, it has also accomplished something that many TikTok users have been seeking: for their favorite creators to speak up.
“Most people want to help,” says Erin, whose project inspired prominent creators like Chris Olsen and Hank Green to publicly adopt families. “I think no one had any idea how to focus that help.”
In this conversation, we talk about what inspired her to start the project, how she feels about the creators getting on board now, and what #PassTheHat has accomplished so far.
What first brought you to TikTok?
My cousin kept messaging me fridge organization videos. And I was like, “This is very satisfying.” I didn't have [a TikTok] for so long 'cause I really am not the biggest social media person. But I finally got one and I posted a sketch 'cause I had done standup and comedy throughout college, but it wasn't something I was necessarily gonna pursue 'cause it's such a rough career path. But I posted one and it went viral and then I posted another one and that went viral.
But you’ve recently pivoted. For people who don't know, can you explain what it is you're doing on TikTok now?
Ever since October, when Israel launched their disgusting campaign on the Palestinian people, I have been posting about it. And as I posted about it, more and more families reached out. They're like, “I'm in this situation. Here's my GoFundMe. I'm trying to cross the border.” And I was like, “Yes, I can post about that.” And then it was five families and it was 10 and then it was 20 and it was 50. And I was like, I don't have the algorithm power or human capacity to post about all of it. And I was feeling very discouraged. And finally I was like, you know what? I'll just make a Google form. If another creator wants to help support a family, we can assign them a family and then they can do that.
And then OOB, which I had posted about a few times, reached out and they're like, “We have pre-verified families that go through the verification process. Do you wanna use those families? There's thousands on the waiting list, so if we get someone off, we can get someone on. I wasn't expecting it to take off. I was expecting, like, 40 people to sign up, and it just kind of exploded, honestly.
What has made your work even more significant is that it's gotten a lot of prominent creators to speak about it on their platforms. Was that the goal?
Honestly, I just reached out to all my big creator mutuals because I knew they could see my messages and I was like, “Hey, do you want to help out?” And when it came to John and Hank Green, I knew they have done a lot of charity work and I was always really big fans of them and I was always surprised they weren't speaking out about it. And I think I came to a point where I was like, can I even be a fan if I don't address that to them? And they were very gracious and very accepting and listening and obviously have taken steps and I'm happy about that. And I think me being a fan and me coming to them and making them speak out has made other big creators realize that you can speak out and it's not gonna be detrimental to your career or your page or anything like that. I also think it's the concept of a bandwagon—once a couple people are on it, it's kind of like the ice bucket challenge. Once one person sees that, everyone's like, “I wanna do it.” I keep getting more text messages from people I never thought would reach out to me. Which is awesome.
Do you have any thoughts about why this in particular took off?
Most people want to help. I think no one had any idea how to focus that help. So once I made the form and I realized how much it took off, I was like, Oh, all these people wanted to help. They need to be given directions. Like, do this, you can pick your own family, which people have been doing, and we're assigned to make sure families that have the most urgency get picked to make sure every single family gets assigned with someone. But people like the idea of being assigned a family. They like the idea of it being: This is their mission, and they choose this. They also love that they can be in contact with the families and they can get to know the families.
Obviously it's great that you started this movement, but being the accidental leader is probably exhausting. How are you taking care of yourself?
Well, I don't, first of all. You can talk to my therapist about it. She's still pretty upset about it. I get frustrated with that label because there's been creators of color, Black creators, Muslim creators, Arab, Middle Eastern creators who've been talking about this since the beginning and doing so much more on the ground work than I have, and they are getting no credit. And it's super frustrating. And I do my best to direct my audience towards them as well. But they feel that parasocial relationship to me. I definitely don't want to take on the concept of the ringleader or the face. I totally understand how that works from a marketing point of view and from a selling point of view. And I've talked to other people about that, about how it's not about making it the Erin show, but it's about making it the Erin show enough that people will wanna grab on. But I'm not the end all, be all. It's really about the people doing the hard work on the ground that don't get anything, and honestly don't even want things. They just want people paying attention.
Some people can face criticism for having not done anything until now. What are your thoughts on that?
Are you showing families’ faces? Are you putting money in their hands? I don't really care then. I understand there's this block movement and I do see it as very helpful in some degree of encouraging celebrities to speak out. And if you're just fed up with following celebrities, don't follow 'em anymore. That's totally fine. But if someone does speak out, you can't be like, how dare you not speak out this much? I'm like, I don't care. We need dollars in hands. That doesn't matter to me, and most importantly, it doesn't matter to the families. Families don't care about TikTok squabbles or even our political squabbles. They are just thinking of straight up survival, and they don't care if it's genuine whether someone makes a post. We just need eyes on families and money for families. I have been disappointed by creators in the past and I have been asking before and have gotten nothing from people and now they're speaking out. And part of me is like, “That's annoying.” And then the other part of me is like, “Who cares? We're doing it now.”
The Blockout is obviously a good idea in theory and I support the mission behind it. But I think social media is a better tool for organizing when it's something like #PassTheHat, where the goal is super clear.
I have my feelings on a free Palestine, but if someone comes to the table and is like, “I'm not sure, maybe a two-state solution, maybe I'm a Zionist”—I don't care. Do you have money? Give it to the families.
I made the one Blockout video and two people from the video have reached out. I don't even consider it a blockout. I consider it calling people out—or in, more accurately. And once they came forward, I very much said, “I have no personal animosity towards you. I am doing whatever it takes to help these families get the resources they need, these are the steps you can take.” So clearly it does work to a degree I think if you're gracious about it. The [now private] video I made for the Green brothers, I won't lie, is harsh at some moments. But I came at it from a place of good faith, thinking, this is something they would respond to and I think this is something they would be interested in. I don't think it's worth just yelling at celebrities for the sake of yelling at celebrities. And I also think it's taking away attention from families. That's the biggest problem. If you're gonna talk about blocking out, talk about why they should be blocking out, talk about active steps they can do better to speak out.
At the same time there's also just a lot of anger going around, and sometimes people just don't know how to focus that anger. It's so nice and righteous to hang onto my anger, but I need to focus that. You can't just throw it around. It's not productive. And I think a lot of people are just throwing it around.
Do you have any sense of what's been accomplished so far thanks to this movement?
I haven't checked it since last Sunday, but as of last Sunday we had 13 families completed, and it's grown exponentially, honestly. So it's definitely a lot more. One creator yesterday raised $200,000 for a family.
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Is that Yuval?
Yuval, yeah. And then Brettney Spears raised enough money for their family within one day. So I can see it working and I know it's working 'cause families I post about also often reach their goal. Obviously the goals are now tentative because resources are getting more scarce and the borders are still closed. So our goal is to just get everyone up to their goal so the second the border opens, we can get as many people across as possible.