Is Activism Mainstream?
words by Sabi Lowder
A former activist and current overthinker talks to herself about today’s state of affairs.
I want to say yes. Yes, of course, activism is mainstream. Mainly because I could probably go on Amazon right now and find a #BlackLivesMatter T-shirt for $19.99, mass-produced by underpaid workers overseas, with hundreds of reviews from white people.
Just checked.
If I search “Black Lives Matter,” the first thing that appears is a rainbow flag that declares, “SCIENCE IS REAL, BLACK LIVES MATTER, NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL, LOVE IS LOVE.”
$7.99. 4.7 stars. 678 reviews.
The avatars that do show up look white, but I can’t be sure. I don’t want to do the digging to find out where the flags are made, but $7.99 doesn’t sound like they’re ethically made with love.
I wonder if they went to any BLM protests or if they’re registered to vote in their local election. I wonder where their “no human is illegal”
mentality draws a line, and I think about Majid Khan, who joined Al Qaeda as a young man, agreed to become a suicide bomber, and delivered $50,000 that was used towards hotel bombings in Indonesia. He was held and tortured in Guantanamo Bay for years. I wonder what they think about him.
What about the prison system as a whole? If no human is illegal, then what does it mean when we lock someone away? I know the statement is about immigration, and it’s probably tone-deaf of me to make it about something else, but I can’t help but ask the yard-sign person: what does “illegal” really mean? Who are you talking about when you say “human”? Because God knows humans aren't the same thing to everyone.
Is a felon a human? A refugee? What about the person experiencing homelessness at the corner of my street? You know, the one who shouts incomprehensible slurs. I typically avoid him so I don’t have to face the discomfort of when he asks for money and I say no. There are better ways to handle the situation. I know it, but by the time I see him, it’s 6 pm, and I’m too tired to be a good person. Maybe I should volunteer for a homeless outreach program. No, that would be guilt-fueled. I should get back into advocacy work, though.
Is activism mainstream? Let’s look at the definition.
ac·tiv·ism /ˈaktəˌvizəm/
The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.
Glad I looked that up. I’ve changed my answer.
Activism isn’t mainstream. The yard sign person isn’t an activist. At best, they’re showing solidarity with activists. At worst, they’re virtue signaling. Maybe it just feels mainstream when what’s really happening is the internet. We have infographics and yard signs, but how many of us are actually vigorously campaigning to bring about political or social change?
I certainly reposted more infographics about Gaza than I made calls to my senator. Yeah, I tried to encourage people to make calls and used an app to do it daily, but my calls eventually dropped off. Am I just a yard sign person?
Having opinions and access to information is mainstream, but vigorously campaigning to make actual political or social change is still far less common. In assessing the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, Pew Research found that only 32% of people say it’s been highly effective at bringing attention to racism against Black people.
Everyone seems to have an opinion on Black Lives Matter, but only 32% say it’s been highly effective. I don’t bring this up as a critique of BLM at all, rather a critique of how the public reacts to activism and engages with it. How quickly it is to get lost in the tidal wave of a protest and forget about the actual tangible change that happens on the ground for the people affected.
It reminds me of the Brett Kavanaugh protests I went to in 2018. I had been working in sexual assault victim advocacy for a year, going to court with survivors and helping them as they moved through the days of questioning. A few advocacy friends and I went to the protest hoping to release some of our anger. Christine Blasey Ford had been destroyed by the media for sharing her story of abuse, and another man had risen to power. We needed to scream in the street.
But one of the key organizers was a socialist organization, and quickly the protest turned into shouts about labor and freedom. There was a masculine anger in the air that is common in leftist spaces; often white men shouting about the system.
My friends and I left. This protest wasn’t for us or the survivors we served. This was for angry leftists to yell and make a scene. My work with one-on-one survivors felt much more important than attending that protest, and I stopped going to ones organized by that group thereafter.
One more time, is activism mainstream? Let’s define mainstream.
main·stream /ˈmānˌstrēm/
The ideas, attitudes, or activities that are regarded as normal or conventional; the dominant trend in opinion, fashion, or the arts.
Glad I looked that up. I know my answer.
No. Making actual political change is not mainstream. Dedicating yourself to a cause and working to change the world? Not a norm or a convention. Not a trend or a fashion. Any long-term activist can tell you how their work might have been in vogue at one point or another, but then the tides turn, and something else is on the rise.
Polarization is mainstream. Having opinions is mainstream. Access to information is incredibly mainstream. But activism requires work and dedication most of us don’t want to do. We get yard signs to ease the guilt and post on Instagram to feel a sense of control in a sea of overwhelming pain. We go to protests sometimes, but mostly we just sit on our phones and have our opinions.
I don’t work in advocacy anymore, and I haven’t been an engaged activist in a long time, mostly because I got tired. I didn’t want to think about how an American is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds anymore, and I didn’t want to fight with the angry leftist men at protests either. On bad days, I am a yard sign person. On better days, I’m trying to actually read more books than infographics and be kinder to the person experiencing homelessness on my street.
Activism isn’t mainstream because it’s hard work. You should do it. So should I.