In an email advertising a phone-banking training being held by Kenyon Democrats, I wrote the following: “‘we can, and should, find a way to take care of each other.’ That means talking to your neighbors about their experiences and working towards making this country a better place… It means actually caring and making an effort.” The email contained nothing overtly partisan, simply advice that one should campaign actively for the platform—whatever platform—they support, because “the best way to protest against ideas you find harmful is to take action” in favor of the ideas you do find helpful. The student-info moderator rejected the email for espousing “personal political views.”
Outside of the fact that I’m confused about how any political group on campus is supposed to advertise events in a non-political way—whether that be an explicitly political group like Kenyon Democrats or a targeted group like Kenyon Students for Gun Sense—I know I have received emails previously that contained distinctly political rhetoric. Only a day before my email was rejected, the entire student body received a message about an unofficial Libertarian organization on campus, which included the claim that “PC culture [has] taken it too far” and the subject line “I LOVE AMERICA” (which, as another student pointed out, “implies that if you disagree with the email, you hate America”). The email sparked off almost forty replies (and those were reply-alls; I’m sure the original student received even more direct emails), about half of which included bad Tide Pod memes and about half of which included decisively “personal political views.”
I couldn’t help but notice that of everyone who replied with outrage to the Libertarian email, not one had actually volunteered with Kenyon Democrats this year; not one had made phone calls to help elect representatives who could tangibly and legislatively work towards their interests (and not one came to the phone-banking training, which in the absence of the student-info email was advertised through a bevy of signs hung around campus).
To truly push for change, one needs to support the causes they care about in their everyday life, not just through bad, ironic memes on an all-stu email chain. They need to make an effort, even and especially when it involves making their stance clear against something else, even and especially when it involves sacrificing what would be easy for what would be right. I don’t think that claim should be viewed as contentious. I think performative activism—attending the Women’s March but refusing to challenge the problematic views of a friend who continually makes women uncomfortable, talking about the importance of political volunteerism but never actually knocking any doors, claiming to support a marginalized group but then casually dismissing and interrupting their attempts to bring their narratives into the light—should be viewed as the real problem.
One also needs to make a political effort, meaning calling representatives, canvassing, and campaigning; meaning registering to vote and encouraging others to register to vote; meaning working towards changing the institutions of America that perpetuate wrongs. Simply changing the nearby vicinity’s culture without changing the larger nation’s policies won’t fully accomplish any political goals.
Culturally, politically, small-scale, large-scale: we can, and should, find a way to take care of each other—and that means actually caring and making an effort. I care, and I’m making an effort. Please care; please make an effort.
Image Credits: Catherine Von Holt, Courtney Felle, 3