How Do You Know What You Know?

As I took my structured 15 minute stroll through the home wall of my Facebook account, I came across a notice posted by a friend about the passing of a natural hair “vlogger.”  Her name was Domineque Banks, also known as longhairdontcare11 on YouTube. I read on and “liked” for a few reasons:  my hair is natural by default due to surviving breast cancer; her thick, long hair caught my attention; her smile was innocent; and she passed away from the same disease that haunts my mother – Lupus.

I never watched her videos; never hear of her. But, my immediate connections with Domineque caused me to want to delve deeper. Only 27-years-old? This can’t be true. And, there was a request for money; red flag! I thought to myself, “Did she really die?” So, clicked on the fund raising link of https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/rmd4/in-memory-of-domineque-banks/updates/69537 to see if I could learn more about this young woman. I found out that she had family out-of-state who needed assistance attending her memorial, and that funds were needed for her cremation. I took another step and copied her name into the Google search engine, and there I found three natural hair care sites headlining the passing of Domineque. It was after I read the postings on these sites that I was convinced of her passing.

Some might question, well … my questions to determine fact or fiction. After all, social media sites such as Facebook are not known for credible posts.  Similar to Wikipedia, anyone can submit, add, delete or modify a post to make it what they want, including raise money or to create an up roar.  However, the more I read and learned through my research, the more I believed this announcement of Domineque’s passing to be fact. On the other hand, I am still not fully convinced that funding is needed to cover final expenses.  Though it appears that funds have been raised via Give Forward in excess of $3,000, I needed more details from the fund raisers in order to make a donation, such as specifics on where funding would impact the cause, and why funding was needed in the first place.

I admit, for some, just the fact that Domineque passed away would be enough to make a donation. The post about her passing garnered approximately 7,000 “likes” and 1,500 “shares.” But, for others like me, facts are important to making ethical choices. This is not to say that I wasn’t touched by her story, rather it is more how do I make a targeted difference based on facts.  Full disclosure, transparency could have made a difference in my decision to give. May Domineque rest in peace, and may her family find comfort in her memory and her host of YouTube followers.