I learned about a new tactic this month. A tactic used against those of us looking to create a more equitable, inclusive, and safe world. You’d think that the powers that be would be satisfied by using acts of violence and intimidation, but no. They had to go and create a whole new way of trying to tear us down.
It’s called flooding the zone (this is an excellent episode from NPR on what that means and how to survive it). The goal of this new weapon in the war for equality is to overwhelm marginalized communities and organizations with an onslaught of action and messaging that perpetuate discrimination, prejudice, and oppression so that they become immobile. Consumed by fears and anxieties, these communities grind to a halt in their activism. And as they freeze, so does progress. It’s a tactic used to chip away at motivation and movement. It creates a monster that appears indestructible, immune to all weapons and attacks. Past defenses and offenses used to conquer previous beasts seem to fail.
But dig a bit deeper and the five-headed, fire-breathing, blood-thirsty monstrosity becomes nothing more than a poorly constructed puppet held together by flimsy string and a fair amount of duct tape. That is to say, this mounted attack that seems coordinated and effective is rather frazzled and haphazard. The movement is spearheaded by shots in the dark with hopes that bullets will hit their mark rather than a practiced sharpshooter trained and armed.
- Pick something close to your heart.
I broke down over coffee last year. I had bought it from a local shop and even brought my own cup. Reduce, reuse, and recycle was still drilled into my brain. That morning, my professor discussed fair trade coffee. And how fair trade coffee wasn’t actually fair trade coffee. I felt like beating my head against my desk. I had done it right, right? Bought locally? Reused a cup? Why was I still failing?
My professor, bless her, noticed my desperation and pulled me aside after class.
“What’s going on?” she said, raising an eyebrow when I dismissed her concern with a hurried “Oh nothing, I’m just tired!”
I sighed.
“It all feels so overwhelming,” I finally admitted. “It feels like no matter what I do or say the system…keeps freaking winning. It’s overwhelming. There’s so much to take on and do and I can’t even drink caffeine to keep myself awake long enough to do it all!”
I shook my coffee cup in frustration and she laughed.
“Hannah,” she said, “I drink rotten coffee. I have to drink rotten coffee.”
I didn’t understand. She sighed.
“Look, we can’t do it all,” she pointed at my cup, “you did your best. Your money went to a local business. You reused a cup. That’s your part. Well done. You can’t take on everything because there’s so much of it it would crush you. But you don’t have to do it all either. You know Lucy right?”
I did know Lucy.
“Lucy is out here fighting for immigration rights, specifically immigrants from Guatemala. And Juan? Juan is out here working to make buildings more accessible for the disabled. Mika is kicking butt working to protect and advocate for domestic abuse survivors. They are all doing their part. They found what they’re most passionate about and are running with it. They aren’t trying to fight it all. They’re fighting what they can. And drinking really rotten coffee while they do it.”
I laughed.
“Pick what you’re passionate about. Dig in and work like hell to protect it. The rest will come and what doesn’t…you’ve got people like Lucy and Juan and Mika to cover what’s left. You cover what you can, they cover what they can, and you’ll work together to get it done.”
My coffee suddenly didn’t taste so bitter.
I tell you all this because I imagine you feel quite overwhelmed at the moment. With the onslaught of legislation and executive orders, it can be difficult to know where and how to start. Pick something that’s important to you. LGBTQIA+ rights or women’s rights or immigration rights or environmental rights. Whatever it is, find your niche and start there. One, it makes this work much more manageable because you don’t have to start out by tackling all the -isms and -phobias. You can start small. And two, the rest will come. These issues are so interconnected, the knowledge you need will find its way to you. You’ll hear from others doing the work, you’ll read something, you’ll experience something. It will come. Start where you can and be open. You’ll be okay.
2.Watch/listen/read marginalized media.
Erasure. The Nazis did it. We’re doing it. By removing marginalized stories and work, we are erasing their voice, presence, and messages. We claim to remove them because of “nudity” or “violence” or for being “offensive” in one form or another. We ban books and movies and poems and artwork all in the name of maintaining a “clean” and “appropriate” and “upstanding” society. Boiled down, it’s none of those things. It’s systemic violence bent on erasing marginalized identity for the sake of protecting the majority in power. How do we fight this?
We watch. And we read. And we listen. We collect the material that’s being banned, seek it out when it’s challenged. We popularize these stories and learn from them. We expand our worlds and understanding. So that they can’t take these stories from us.
Here are some places to start for:
Movies that highlight the:
- LGBTQIA+ community
- Black community
- Latinx community
- Asian American community
- Native American/Indigenous community
- Disabled community
- Women
Books that highlight the:
- LGBTQIA+ community
- Black community
- Latinx community
- Asian American community
- Native American/Indigenous community
- Disabled community
- Women
Podcasts that highlight the:
- LGBTQIA+ community
- Black community
- Latinx community
- Asian American community
- Native American/Indigenous community
- Disabled community
- Women
Note: These are not the only communities to look out for and learn from. These are just some general starting points!
3. Donate and volunteer at organizations supporting marginalized communities.
Once you’ve found your niche, start looking for organizations that support that community. This is a great way to support and learn about the community, especially when money is tight. A couple tips:
- Make sure that the community likes the organization you choose and goes to them for resources.
- See how you can best support and try to create a consistent volunteer schedule. For example, maybe every Friday at 2PM you sit on call for the Trevor Project or have a shift at the Denver Action Center.
- Try to find work that’s life giving. Yes, as volunteers we do whatever is asked of us, but it helps to find a job that you can enjoy so you look forward to it.
Here are some places to get started:
International Rescue Committee
The Center for People with Disabilities
- Educate. Educate. Educate.
Keep up to date on your chosen issue. Dedicate a time of day to check out news articles from trusted sources that address the community. Read books, watch movies, and TedTalks to gather as much information as you can. Universities often host free talks for the public. Check them out to see if they’re talking about a relevant topic! Look for experts in the field and see what they’ve published, resources they offer, etc.
And remember to be open to new information coming from other issues. For example, just because you’ve decided to focus on supporting new immigrants, keep an eye out for information about the queer community. You’re going to come across queer immigrants. It’s important to know how their identities overlap and how to create welcoming environments for them as well!
In a time where information is being stolen and censored left and right, educating yourself is a powerful weapon in the fight to come.
5. Use your privilege.
Most of us looking to start our social justice journey but not knowing how to do it are coming from worlds of privilege. This means that the system we are living in has historically supported us and our identity. We have faced few if any moments of oppression, discrimination, and prejudice. As we begin this journey, we must acknowledge our privilege and use it.
Our privilege can act as a shield. We can protect minority groups at protests by walking in front of them so we take the hate while they spread their message. Our privilege can be an amplifier, demanding that our peers listen to marginalized voices. Our privilege can be a mirror. We can use it to reflect the racism, misogyny, homophobia, ableism, and xenophobia of the world and call attention to it.
If you’re looking for an introduction to acknowledging and using privilege check out this article for a place to start!
6. Protest: in the streets, online, in the home.
- Keep up to date on protests. Know how to protest safely.
Protesting has changed, to say the least. Gone are the days of guaranteed anonymity in protest with the advent of doxxing and facial recognition tech. but it hasn’t lost its importance. We just have to be a little more careful and mindful when we hit the streets. Check out this protest survival guide!
- It’s ok to not be in the streets. Be online if you need it.
Sometimes disability or economic standings or life in general makes it difficult for us to protest in the streets. Maybe we can’t get away from work because others depend on us or transportation is difficult. Or maybe we’re immuno-compromised and we can’t be in crowded areas safely. Maybe our mental state means protests are more overwhelming than empowering. Whatever the reason, there are other ways to protest.
We can email, call, and write to our legislators. We can research and sign protests. We can vote (yes, one vote matters!). We can follow and promote creators online who are rehearsed in our fields of interests. We can host or participate in online seminars and discussions. We can vet and spread good, accurate information and combat the spread of false news. We can have those difficult conversations with our relatives.
You don’t have to march in the streets to protest.
7. Archive.
Censorship and erasure are two common weapons of our current administration. Take, for example, a look at the Trump administration’s attack on the CDC website. Here, over 1,000 pages were removed (luckily some have been restored) seemingly overnight. These pages contained important medical and health information. Information that could potentially save lives. Luckily, people leaped into action and many of these pages are now safely archived on the Internet Archive. Thanks to their quick thinking and dedication, we can still access the information even if it’s never reinstated on the CDC website.
Archiving is an effective way to combate censorship and erasure and ensure that diverse voices, scientific reasoning, and history are preserved no matter what happens moving forward. Collect resources you deem important. Perhaps you begin to collect queer literature, creating your own library of books that are now being challenged and banned. Follow in the footsteps of our Internet Archivists footsteps and archive historical documents and books. Download information and keep it secure on a hard drive. Collect anything and everything you can. They can’t erase our history, our truth. We won’t let them.
8. Spread and find resources.
A quick Google search will give you a plethora of resources and organizations that are working to support your chosen community. Take a look at what you find. (Tip: This is a great way to find an organization to volunteer for!) If you find something you think could help your community, share it. Use a social media platform to spread the word. Create a resource list and post it at work or school for co-workers or students to find! Keep it in your back pocket so if someone comes to you asking for help, you know where to send them. Make sure to keep it updated…we’re seeing a lot of change right now with federal funding and executive orders. Make sure your resource list is full of organizations still in operation and still offering the things that help your community!
9. Fact check
With all of this, remember to fact check. Make sure your organizations are legit, that your resources are verified, that the info you’re looking at is fact checked and accurate. In the age of misinformation and fake news, finding the truth can be difficult. But it’s essential we hunt it down. We can’t build a revolution on lies.
Remember, the goal is to overwhelm us with an onslaught of executive orders, hate speech, and discriminatory action. We must hold our ground. We must not let ourselves drown in the onslaught but rather take it day by day. Choose our moment, choose where we can help, and take the days in stride. If we divide and conquer whilst remembering to lean on each other for support and education then their strategy will fail. And we will succeed in creating a world built on diversity, equity, equality, and inclusion. Our activism, our advocacy will overcome these barriers so we can create a world without racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia, or the countless other -isms and -phobias. A world where we are all free to live and love alongside each other without fear of discrimination, prejudice, and oppression. Welcome to the revolution. We are glad to have you in our fight for a world built on and built for unconditional love.