THE HUSHSTORY

Discover the true meaning of activism, the different barriers that prevent people from participating in social and political movements and explore the different ways to ignite change. Let’s Uncover: Activism https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.146.28/66t.89b.myftpupload.com/podcast-player/32/lets-uncover-activism.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 22:29 | Recorded on August 9, 2020 Hello and welcome to the Hushstory! This is a place where you get to explore topics, stories and perspectives that do not typically make it to the mainstream media or that history has hidden from you. My name is Martina Gordon and I will be your guide along the way. So, let us uncover! Today we are going to focus on activism. With everything that is going on in our world today, it is important to explore the root of social and political movements. The Collins dictionary defines activism as “the process of campaigning in public or working for an organization in order to bring about political or social change” From the New York Slave Revolt of 1712, to the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, to the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 – activism is one of the ways in the which civilians – specifically the working class, invoke change and allow our voices to be heard. And sometimes these movements do incite long term change, like the 1920s Women’s Suffrage movement permitting women to vote, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations have called for a global action against racial injustice and police brutality. This has resulted in the arrests of the officers involved in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black American, a mass movement to defund the police and allocate these resources within communities, and the removal of statuses and monuments of historically racist figures. And sometimes, it seems as though justice is not within reach. Five months has gone by since the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year old emergency medical technician, who was in her home when police wrongfully entered and shot her eight times. The officers involved have still not been held accountable for their actions. As people become impatient, waiting for politicians and leaders to do the right thing, movements can end up fading out. Sentiments become apathetic and media outlets find the next provocative story to focus on. Either way, activism serves an important purpose – it allows for a sense of agency within the lives of working class, marginalized communities – and one of the only ways we can channel change. So, the word activism did not always have the same meaning that we know it as today. The word activism first shows up in Rudolf Euken’s book The Fundamentals of a New Philosophy of Life and referred to “the theory or belief that truth is arrived at through action or active striving after the spiritual life” The meaning soon transformed in Europe during World War I, activism was linked to the “advocacy of a policy of supporting Germany in the war, pro-German feeling or activity” During the 1920s, the word started to shift meaning, closer to what we define it as today. The word would refer to “the policy of active participation or engagement in a particular sphere of activity or the vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change” The modes in which we channel activism are constantly changing – but one thing that we have to recognize is our eagerness to extract the radical aspect from it. In the Western democratic world, most activism is driven in the hopes of political and institutional change. But slowly the radicalism that was once a pillar of political activism has dwindled. In The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century, authors David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow write, “although disruption appears to be the most effective political tool of the disadvantaged, the majority of episodes of movement activity we see today disrupt few routines.”  Social movements are becoming more and more centrist in the way they operate, to garner more support and reach more people. I suppose this is because the idea of radicalism has carried negative connotations. We often associate radicalism with extremism and terror, or tyrannical rhetoric. But when we examine history, a lot of social and political movements would not exist without radical ideals. People challenging the status quo and going completely against the norms of the time. When slavery abolitionist was protesting in Britain and fought for the freedom of Black people, they were seen as radicals. Yet today, we would not see them as such. So, it is clear then that radicalism is a relative term, and yet we still cannot disconnect ourselves from the absolutism it brings. As activism starts to become broader, as a means to connect with people on all parts of the political spectrum, it leaves this sense of ambiguity to what the term means and what truly constitutes an activist. With the inclusion of more people and more ideologies into these social and political movements, we start to see the importance of intersectionality and why it should be the foundation for all movements. So, what is intersectionality? It is the practice of identifying race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers as intertwined oppressive factors. It is used to recognize people’s social and political statuses as equal integral contributors to their identity. With intersectionality, we are able to identify the privileges, advantages, and disadvantages one may face depending on their identity. Third-wave feminists championed for intersectionality within the feminist movements of the 1990s and we can see how this inclusivity of all people – who were once considered “other” is now being integrated 21st century activism. Now, though movements are becoming more expansive and accepting, it is important to talk about the very real and pertinent barriers that people face when trying to participate in social and political movements. Being an activist in itself is a privilege – because not everyone has the ability to dedicate their time to causes, they care about. So as we analyze these movements and as activists try to understand how we get people to care about these issues and how to draw in the most amount of attention, we need use intersectionality as means of ensuring we are not gatekeeping these movements. Often what these movements forget is that there are a lot of reasons as to why people cannot fully participate or advocate for causes, they care about. So, let us uncover the ways in which activists can gatekeep these social and political movements. The first thing that is going to be discussed   is gatekeeping through language. As people, activist serve as a channel through which the truth can be exposed to the public. When activist do not make information easily accessible, or information is incoherent through the use of academic jargon – it immediately outcasts people who do not have this kind of access and therefore cannot truly care. Exclusion also happens in the form of poverty – setting locations for community organizing where busing is not accessible, or transportation is expensive. Setting campaigns and rallies being during work hours and also setting prices for these events are all deterrents for the working class. We must also talk about women feeling activism puts them more at risk. Though there have been studies done showing that these movements are more effective when women take charge – as protests are more likely to remain nonviolent when women participate according to the United Nations’ 2019 report on Women and Feminist Protests in Lebanon, we still find ourselves confined in these movements. With the  majority of women working in the public sector – 41% compared to the 38% that work in the private sector, losing jobs over organizing or protesting is a major concern. Women involved in protests, campaigns, legal aid, journalism, and other public sectors are often targets for violence, abuse and hate speech. As well, the fear of being blacklisted by employers or outcasted by coworkers, makes engaging in activism difficult for women. White men still dominate the activist sphere, while simultaneously leaving women’s issues and voices out of the conversation. When women’s issues are not addressed, and when women are made to feel as though our issues are not as important – this is just another way these movements can supress us. Another barrier to activism, is cherry-picking certain causes or holding them above others. Activist often do not want to see gender, race, religion, class as and other identities as intersecting, but would rather separate them into different political and social movements which causes this erasure of people with multiple identities that they hold. For example, as Black women, we cannot be either Black or a woman – we are both simultaneously and the racism and sexism that we face are not separate but rather connected in the oppression that we face. By choosing one specific identity to focus on, we fail to recognize people as complexities. There is not a one size fits all movement, and we need to stop trying to only push one narrative. It is important to recognize duality, and that many things can exist at once and they can still hold truth. We must not forget that privileged activist will always have methods in which to channel their anger and need for change in ways that are more socially acceptable. When we question the modes of organizing and protesting of marginalized communities and working-class people, we need to acknowledge the privilege that we have to be doing this. By judging the way people retaliate and protest, if it does not fit your mold of what activism should be, maybe you should evaluate why you have such an limited view of how people should react to the injustices that they face. In 1967, as the city of Baltimore broke out in riots, Martin Luther King Jr, in an interview, said “a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?” In society today, activism has been linked with the left side of the political spectrum. As progressive as the left may seem, we notice the left is still spearheaded by white males that uphold these barriers through something called the Left melancholy. The left melancholy is a phenomenon coined by Walter Benjamin. Using Stuart Hall’s analysis of the contemporary Left, Wendy Brown explains the consequence of trying to root activism in the objective truth. As whiteness and masculinity have become the default for objectivity – using that as a model for which the ideals and platforms are rooted provides grounds for this sort of exclusion. Brown further concludes, “failure to develop a political critique and a moral political vision not rooted in the objective leaves us in a political straitjacket that refuses the importance of the subject and the subjective”. We can also use this to assess why organizations have become more humanized. As people start to become more conscious and care about the products they are consuming, companies have had to adapt to this to seem more progressive. They align themselves with leftist ideals, but they do not align themselves with intersectional causes so that they can claim progressiveness and capitalize off of it without truly supporting these issues.   This leads me to another important issue with activism. The commercialization of activism is an emerging problem for many reasons. It creates a figure head in which to profit off. By associating the Black Power Movement with the Black Panthers, or the feminist movement in the 60s with Rosie the Riveter, companies then transform these emblems into marketable goods. American political activist and academic Angela Davis speaks about her discomfort with being symbolized for the Black power movement, resulting in the commercialization of her words and image. She is quoted saying, “It is both humiliating and humbling to discover that a single generation after the events that constructed me as a public personality, I am remembered as a hairdo.” In the article, the Commercialization of Social Movements by the Berkley’s Economic Review, it outlines the consequence of this as a term called moral licensing. The article then explains, “consumers are not as likely to worry about the implications of their future actions because they link their purchase of merchandise to be a positive and moral action contributing to these movements. This means that those who signal their virtue and support for the movement through symbolic gestures may be less inclined to participate in further actual and direct action, reducing the effective critical mass movement.” As this commercialization relates mainly to Western activism, it is important to speak about the ways in which activism presents itself in different countries. For this example, I am going to compare the United States versus China. When assessing activism in the US, online activism seems to be more institutionalized. Non-profit organizations are often leading important humanitarian issues and crises. This helps to validate these causes, as people see legitimacy in activism when it can be attached to organizations and therefore helps to effectively draw people in and organize. This type of activism is often seen as passive or lazy because these organizations and movements often depend solely on awareness instead of being outcome oriented. Things such as panels, debates, awareness campaigns and events, though useful and important channels to educate, they often leave people feeling as though they should or need to be doing more. Contrastingly, China’s approach to activism is non-institutionalized in the way it is executed. Their activism takes more of an underground approach, since often activism there is in opposition to the government. Activist are not organizations, but groups within the community trying combat the status quo within the society they live in. Though there is a lack of institutionalization, it does not make social and political movements illegitimate. What it does allow for is that activism can take an anonymous approach, which helps is one of the ways activists in China try to prevent themselves from being censored or silenced. Now that we have established what activism is – what constitutes someone as an activist? Is it posting a black screen on Instagram for blackouttuesday? Or is it putting your life on the line to protest a cause that is important to you? In contemporary times – the word has been misused and therefore has lost some of its true context and meaning. To call yourself an activist is to recognize the privilege that you have to be dedicating your time to a certain cause, doing the necessary research needed to advocate coherently and intelligently for your cause and most importantly – doing the work to see through the change that you’ve envisioned. I am not saying that sharing and reposting on social media or bringing awareness to causes is not important. But consider another word that comes to mind, that is a crucial part of social movements: a supporter. A supporter is someone who may not know enough to articulate themselves about a certain cause, or cannot commit themselves to the time or the work needed to change things but believes in a cause; is something we shouldn’t diminish, nor should we put people down for. If we want people to care, our first step is to break down all the barriers that may keep people from fully participating in these movements. But being a supporter is important, because activist rely on people to gain interest and become a unified force, showing those in power that we do care. Not everyone can be an advocate – and that is okay. By minimizing the effects of supporters, we are creating this hierarchy of importance between activist and supporters. It is not a competition, nor is there a prize for doing the most. Doing something, regardless of the magnitude of that action, is part of the rupturing the status quo. In our current world, there is this fear of being left out or left behind. So, when trends happen, there is this instinct to follow them because you want to feel like you are a part of something. We use technology to perpetuate trends, but currently we are also seeing how technology can incite movements and allow for organizing offline. But because of this common denominator being technology – people are starting to conflate trends with social justice because where you see something trendy is the same place, you are seeing social and political movements taking off. And I suppose this is how people who once did not care about Black Lives Matter have come to using the hashtag. Because it feels as though if they do not engage in this current movement, they are being left out of some sort of trend. But social and political movements, humanitarian issues, are not trends. People like feeling as though they belong to something, and a lot of people look to social media for that sense of belonging. It is important to recognize that social media can bring awareness to a lot of issues to people who otherwise would have no way of knowing about these things either because they don’t have access to resources to educate themselves or because of where they reside in the world, or the type of lifestyle they live. Certain issues may not be familiar to them or that well known. But as globalization continues to create a world where no corner goes untouched, we need to make sure that the want to belong to this larger global network does not harm these important movements. It is not wrong to want to be a part of something, but it is wrong to do it because everyone else is. If more people participated in movements because they genuinely believed in causes, not because they want to seem cool – a lot more would get done. If your activism is only technology based, if you cannot bring your support outside of social media then your activism is performative. If you only believe Black lives Matter online but not in real life, you are part of the problem. If people want to be performative so badly, they should just join a theatre company because these movements are not the place for this. Activism is inherently selfless, there is no room for people who use it to feed their egos and better their images. Because at the end of the day, these issues that these movements are fighting for are life and death for people. I also think it is important to note that, if we continue to allow activism to be seen as something trendy then we are going to further desensitize people to these movements. Everyone should be doing their part to channel change and ensure equality for all people of all identities because they want and because it is the right thing to do, not because it is trending. So, let us recap: Activism is not a new concept but the way in which activist are organizing and championing causes has changed significantly. With the use of social media, people are able to organize and protest in ways that were not possible before. Activism has taken a less radical stance in comparison to it is past and that is part of the reason why there is such ambiguity associated with the term. Activism takes on many different shapes and forms. But it is important to remember the barriers that keep people participating in social movements. Beware of creating emblems within social movements – this will help to reduce the commercialization of activism as well as deter CORPORATIONS from capitalizing off of important causes. And lastly, not everyone has to be an activist and that is okay. We need to be able to differentiate between activist and supporters. Supporters are just as important to these movements because they allow people to create their own terms in which they can engage and spread awareness. We also need to be aware of performativity in activism, and the dangers that come with associating these movements with trends. Activism does not have one specific look, there are many ways in which we can advocate for causes and fight against this oppressive patriarchy. We must not scold people for the amount of work they can do but rather welcome them into this overarching movement for change. References: Yang, G. (2016). Activism. In Peters B. (Ed.), Digital Keywords: A Vocabulary of Information Society and Culture (pp. 1-17). Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvct0023.5 Nepveux, D. (2015). Activism. In Adams R., Reiss B., & Serlin D. (Eds.), Keywords for Disability Studies (pp. 21-25). NYU Press. Retrieved August 11, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15nmhws.9 Craddock, E. (2020). Barriers to Doing Activism. In Living Against Austerity: A Feminist Investigation of Doing Activism and Being Activist (pp. 95-124). Bristol: Bristol University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvxkn6kr.9 Commercialization of Social Movements – Berkeley Economic Review. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://econreview.berkeley.edu/commercialization-of-social-movements/ Resources: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/896695759/black-activist-burnout-you-can-t-do-this-work-if-you-re-running-on-empty https://www.businessinsider.com/black-americans-what-the-black-lives-matter-means-to-them-2020-8 https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/