If there's one thing I have learned in University, it's that expecting event organizing & activist spaces to be free of privileges/bad discourse is a b a d idea. A lot of these spaces usually require a taxing amount of time to be dedicated to said causes - and if you can't dedicate that time bc of school/work/life? Too bad folks are already judging you. & obviously activism/organizing takes up a lot of time and resources. I constantly think back to the time I tired to organize a protest/rally in HS that eventually only worked bc we took it off school grounds & bc other schools were involved. but it's still unfair to expect that everyone else can work at the same level! People who preach about "accessibility" in these spaces and then don't execute plans for accessible spaces are everywhere! People who highlight the importance of checking classism at the door and acknowledging we're all poor students trying to put it all together don't allow there to be spaces that are occasionally free/require a sliding scale payment option etc. & yes other poor organizers deserve to be paid NO QUESTION ABOUT IT and there is a certain amount of solidarity already established between poor students, but it's unrealistic for your target audience at these events to continue to solely be poor marginalized folks who end up always footing the bill. When I've attended events held by qpoc who deserved to be paid for their work, they partnered up w/ a center on campus. These centers are funded by the student association & get a certain budget each year & they provide services obviously. That's how you're supposed to go about holding events - free & accessible & the artist gets paid too! & occasionally, if this artist wants to be paid directly by the community, that's okay too bc at least they & organizers have provided us alternate options if we can't afford to always be in spaces like those. All of this to say I'm tired of the way activism is done on my campus, maybe it's just *my* University but I'm over it. I think a lot about my experiences w/ organizing a queer black history month event w/ friends of mine. I think a lot in that case, about my experiences with everyone & everything & how it's shaped my thoughts. I think a lot about my experiences as a queer "artist" too, as an empath, as a poor marginalized person who also gives to my community in my own ways & I am TIRED. I'm over being invited out to clubs for events every week, or "pay full price at door" events and being expected to shell out money every time, being expected to, despite my issues with my mental health and school experiences & working a job at full time hours, of being made to feel shamed. & I'm over these organizers who need to very well get their shit together, who need to consider that "black capitalism" is still capitalism.
