#active activism

[yourgothmom]

You know when a guy says, "my girlfriend is mad at me for no reason. I asked her what I did and she just keeps saying 'nothing, it's fine," but she still won't look at me or talk to me." When in reality she's been asking him for 3 days straight to take out the garbage, but he's too busy playing video games, or texting his friends, or going to the gym. And she's tired of reminding him over and over and over to take out the garbage. But he's so used to only thinking about his own immediate needs, and so used to her picking up the slack and telling him all the ways he can be more thoughtful, and cooking him dinner, and sucking his dick until suddenly she gets so frustrated she doesn't even want to deal with him any more?

That's why black people don't have to educate you when you ask them questions about how to be a better ally.

They've been telling us for years. We should have innately known how to not be racist, but we got used to them staying quiet and keeping the peace, and even if they've held protests in the past society never changed. So now it's been hundreds of years of them doing the physical and emotional labour. Don't ask them for any more help, there is an abundance of resources for you to find if you get off your ass and just look. Activism is ACTIVE. Do the damn work.

[urdadstits]

What Equal Rights Actually Means

Equal rights means everyone. Not just you, or the people that you care about. It means everybody. No exclusions or exceptions. 

Trans kids/adults

Cis

Men

Women

Black

Latinx

White

Asian

Indigenous

Gender non-conforming

Christian

Muslim

Buddhist

Students

Workers

Lgbtq+

Straight

EVERY. SINGLE. OCCUPANT. OF. THIS. PLANET.

E V E R Y O N E

If your activism doesn't  actively fight for the protection of the rights of every human, then I don't want it. Don't just fight when it's convenient, or when it applies to you, fight because if not you, then who? If not now, then when? 

Fight for your next door neighbor

For your child

For the astronaut orbiting the planet

For the teacher in the classroom

For the firefighter

For the lawyer

For the doctor

For the McDonald's worker

For the tribal elder

For the student

For the garbage collector

For the homeless individual

For the single parent 

For the soldier

For the musician

For the grocery store clerk

For the person who shares your views

And for the person who doesn't

For everyone. We are connected, so either we rise together, or we fall together. It's time to rise. 

[deansnelling-mda20009]

Week 9 - Digital Communities, political engagement and activism

As we all know, checking a post for likes, comments and shares is an effortless task, this is the beauty of the digital era. Something as easy and simple as clicking a button, signifying that you ‘like’ the content can be very powerful, it takes less than a second and happens over 4.2 billion times a day on Instagram alone (Exalted Digital, 2020). In the past activists have failed to garner support as they were reliant on physical advertising and word of mouth to reach their audience.

Thankfully, the modern activist is able to utilise social media to pierce the public sphere to generate awareness and grow a following for their cause. This support is far more tangible as a ‘like’ is physical data and equates to the same as a person standing in the street with a sign vociferously.

Activism involves a lot of vigorous campaigning with the end goal being to establish political or social change.

That being said, it is extremely important for the campaign message to be clear and well structured. A theory of change is used to help guide these communities so that their push for change is more likely to receive its desired outcome, rather than fail as a result of a quick dismissal (Whelan, 2020). Once perfected, this theory of change can be quickly shared to unify people and amplify their power and voice. Social media is a campaigner’s greatest ally as content can be distributed rapidly, transparently and accessibly through the viral nature of these online platforms so that others can learn about and offer their support to the cause (Murthy, 2018).

Nowadays, campaigns thrive online as they can be uploaded immediately, complimented by photography, video and hashtags, they’re borderless and easily managed whilst they build and grow an audience (Stickels, 2020). Ultimately, the digital environment that social media platforms reside in has proven to be an ideal location to host a campaign and promote activist ideologies as well as spread the word in an accessible and speedy manner.

If activism is something you engage in or find interesting, reading up on the black lives matter hashtag is a great way to involve yourself further and learn about the evolution of tags and how they work to push messages in the online space - Click Here to read further.

References

Exalted Digital 2020, Social Media Statistics - World + Australia - Digital Marketing Agency Canberra, viewed 23 May, 2020, <https://www.exalteddigital.com/social-media-statistics-world-australia/>.

Murthy, D 2018, "Introduction to Social Media, Activism, and Organizations", Social Media + Society, vol. 4, no. 1, viewed 23 May, 2020, <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305117750716>.

Stickels, L 2020, ‘Lecture 9. Digital Communities, political engagement and activism’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology.

Whelan, J 2020, "Theories of Change", The Change Agency, viewed 23 May, 2020, <http://www.thechangeagency.org/theories-of-change/>.