Last Saturday’s talk held by Esmeralda started with each of naming the social issue that has the most significance to us. On of the questions that was the most interesting to me was that whether movements were meant to die? In my opinion a movement never gains all that it aims for since there are a lot people resistant to changes and inequalities always exist within a society. Therefore, members of a movement have to be constantly fighting for their ideas. There was this  quote from Alice Walker “Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet that Esmeralda mentioned which illustrates better how all of us have a responsibility of fighting for our rights.

One of the other questions that was brought up was about the effectiveness of leadership. The common belief is that when movements which have known leaders have a higher chance of achieving their goals. However, in my belief leadership is not the most important issue since in many instances the identities of leaders has prevented them from acting further. The only thing that matters is that people should feel an urgency around an issue so that they rouse to action. Again there was this quote mentioned about how movements become more effective around a sense of urgency:  “The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.”

Overall, I liked the talk a lot and I wish there would be more events which focus on discussing social issues.

“It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?” – Nelson Mandela, activist

I like to think of activism like a bike. You can put away your bike for years and never touch it. But once you sit on the seat and begin to peddle, it is natural and fluid. You don’t really forget how to ride a bike. Activism, for me, is something that can never be lost. However, it is a tool that we don’t get the chance to utilize everyday for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s the environment/setting, oppression, or exhaustion.

After having a conversation with a small group of students about activism, I realized that we need more people to proclaim themselves as activists. I think that if we do not value our actions as what they are, their meaning will decrease.  Nelson Mandela, said “”…our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” What if didn’t let a single identifier scare us? What if we liberated yourselves (and others) by not only living out  lives, but also seeing our efforts authentically? What if we started calling ourselves what we are? What if we owned our status as activists?

Not everyone in that room walked in as an activist, but everyone left one. I was told once by a club advisor at an early morning meeting that, “if you are here right now, you are an activist.” It was that simple, my physical presence was just enough to start a movement. In fact, it was all that was necessary. Activism is more than megaphones, moving speeches, or politics. It is in the everyday. Activism is calling out subtle racist and sexist behavior, it is resisting rape culture, it is befriending those that are on the fringes of society, and it is intersectionality.

Mandela again adds, “as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” I hope that my boldness and ability to identify as an activist in the midst of simply ‘showing up’ and ‘resisting’ is enough to permit others to take claim over their activism, regardless of how grand it may be.

Last Saturday, I attended the Rose Scholars discussion on activism. I am currently taking a class on social movements so it was interesting to hear people’s responses on the subject. The two points that came up during this discussion that I found particularly interesting were whether social movements are born to die and the role of the government in activism. It’s impossible to keep a social movement going after achieving its major goals because people won’t feel the same level of urgency despite the fact that there are most likely other issues remaining. The Civil Rights movement, for example, was unable to keep up the momentum after achieving key legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Although there were other issues that still needed to be addressed, they were unable to organize effectively around new goals. However, we can see how the movement for black rights has manifested itself throughout the history of America. Although it would be amazing if we could have immediately gone from the abolition of slavery to the treatment of black Americans as full citizens, it takes time for society to change. Today, we see the modern manifestation of this movement through the Black Lives Matter movement. Although movements die, we see the same issues come up decades later because we still live in a very unequal society. The other point was that I think that widespread change has to happen within the political system. During the discussion, there were arguments made against this because the political system is not always effective or fair. However, if a movement succeeds in passing legislation, it grants legitimacy to their cause. If the government then violates this law, one could pursue the issue through the courts. Even though the courts are also not always fair, there would be an extreme backlash and the government would lose legitimacy if it did not follow the laws set forth in its own Constitution.

The word activism is such a controversial term. When people think of activists, the first think that comes to mind is people holding up signs, loudly protesting things they think are wrong. People think of marches and getting arrested and Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Most of us probably don’t think of ourselves as activists. Truthfully, activism means something different to everyone. When one person becomes an activist, when they believe that they themselves are an activist, varies greatly from person to person. We talked at length about the necessity of activism and when activism can stop – my personal opinion is that it will never stop. Humans are essentially different. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t have our differences. But people will always be dissatisfied with being different. It is human nature. Differences lead to preferences, and preferences lead to prejudices. Prejudices lead to social injustice, and this injustice lays seeds for activism. As we overcome each prejudice and each inequality, there will always be new reasons for activism.

Even after a movement has “won,” it is important for that movement to continue to remind the people of what once happened, and to continue to work to change the minds of those who are still resistant to change. One such example is gay marriage – just because it is now legal doesn’t mean that we don’t still have a host of issues in jobs, business, and general bias against those who do not identify as straight. Another example is the civil rights movement – many of us think of the movement as over. But racial bias is still rampant in America and around the world. Women’s suffrage – we got the vote but we can’t have equal pay. These movements are never over, and we all have a responsibility to work towards equality.

Last Saturday, we discussed what it meant to do activism and also what exactly is an activist. We all agreed that for activism to start, there needs to be clear goals that the organizers are trying to reach. Without a clear set of goals, the movement lacks a direction, which makes it unattractive to join a group when there is no sense of purpose. We also agreed that it was okay to quit activism if one feels that they are physically, emotionally, and or mentally spent from all his or her activist work. Furthermore, being an activist does not necessarily mean that you are or will be the spokesperson of the movement, in fact most of the brunt work is done by people who are not the face. There has to be people behind the scenes, organizing everything otherwise the actual goal of the movement will not be achieved.

However, when it came to the notion that every movement needs a face or spokesperson, I disagreed. There have been many social movements that have been successful without a spokesperson. One prominent one today is the Black Lives’ Matter movement. We know that three black women founded the movement, but they are not the “spokesperson/people or face” of the movement. They work largely more behind the scenes and allow the movements goals to precede any fame they could have. I feel that once you give power to a single person it leaves room for people to either exploit this power and or cause people to hold the spokesperson on a high pedestal. Which is why I think it is important to avoid those circumstances and make it more about getting the message out, such as through many influential people on social media. For example, Beyonce’s Formation music video was a great way to show support for the black lives’ matter movement without making her a spokesperson.

I was a bit apprehensive going into this discussion, as I’ve never really classified myself as an activist. I’ve fallen into the trap laid out for me by the media and have come to associate activists with radicals, much like how the word “feminist” has wrongfully garnered a negative connotation.

I left this talk feeling very differently. For the first time in my life, I thought of myself as an activist. I acknowledged that I possessed firm beliefs, and that by vocalizing these beliefs, I am effectively advocating for my cause. And this was oddly empowering.

I know that a lot of my opinions aren’t especially popular, but for the longest time, I only ever thought of myself as “different”. Now, I see that by being “different”, I’m actually making a difference, and that gives me the confidence to stick to my guns and continue to profess my beliefs and opinions.

All in all, this was a very empowering discussion, and I encourage others to take a moment to think about what causes they themselves feel passionately about.

The event was focused on the many different parts that are involved in activism. The open dialogue brought out a lot of interesting ideas from people who see themselves as activists and from people who aren’t yet ready to accept that label.

The first interesting topic we discussed is whether people are obligated to be activists. Esmeralda brought up Alice Walker’s quote, ” Activism is my rent for living on the planet” which certainly summarizes a potential viewpoint on this question. Walker argues that activism is more an obligation than a choice. The idea has merit, but I don’t support it fully. The inverse of the quote is that a lack activism somehow means you are freeloading. This feeds into a false dichotomy that all activism is good and working from within the system is bad.

Then, we talked about the idea of protests having a figurehead. There were arguments from both sides. People asserted that a figurehead makes the movement more sympathetic and easier for the general public to associate themselves with the movement. Others worried that a figurehead can lead to one person having too much power to dictate an entire movement’s agenda. I would make the case that a figurehead is useful because it allows a movement to most effectively control its message and pr. The downside is that certain people and ideas in the movement, particularity the more radical, will be marginalized and shunned. However, I think this is the price you pay since you can’t have a successful movement that has moving goal posts.

Overall, the morning discussion was very useful and allowed me insight on how others at Cornell view activism.

This Past Saturday I attended a rose scholars event regarding how we do activism. It was a nice discussion with other members of the Rose community discussing what activism was, and if we felt we participated in activism.  We started off by discussing what social issue was of most importance to us. After that, we discussed what lead to effective activism. It was neat to hear people’s perspectives on whether or not there should be a “person in charge” for activism.

Several examples were MLK, Malcolm X, and Anonymous. It was a good discussion about how by being able to rally behind a figure head, it makes the ideas you are fighting for ma bit more tangible.  Moreover, people discussed how having someone from the inside be the figurehead resulting in the message being a lot more clear. Someone shared a counter example saying that in the fight for illegal immigrants to get education, a legal resident is needed to be the figurehead or else it is very difficult to get anything done. Overall, I thought the discussion was neat to hear people’s different perspectives on activism.

This past Saturday, Rose Scholars held a thought-provoking student discussion about activism. One of the first topics we dived into was defining activism.

When I think of activism, the first people that come to my mind are Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. However, these extreme icons are not representative of the ‘minimum requirements’ necessary to be considered an activist.

I would classify someone who educates others about challenges groups face as an activist. Educating is the first step in activism. For example, I was speaking with some classmates about some issues facing the African and African American population at Cornell, and one person didn’t know we even had an Africana Center! Basic conversations that plant a seeds in someone’s mind are sometimes enough.

Overall, it was a really great conversation. One of my favorite moments of the talk was when we were asked what social issues we were passionate about. I said police brutality. Others said LGBTQ rights, gay marriage, abortion, pay inequality, and access to higher education. All of these struggles are interconnected, and the power behind different groups unifying to fight together has a lot of potential.

How do we do activism? was an informative workshop exploring some challenging questions regarding our role as activists and how we go about performing those roles. We defined what it means to be an activist, how one goes about being one, what are the steps that an activist group must take to get something done (and how important it is to take the appropriate steps in order to achieve that goal), when does one group’s agenda begin expanding to become more inclusive of other agendas without losing sight of its initial goals, when does that moment when you decide or define yourself as an activist happen and how would you describe it? Esmeralda opened with a quote by Alice Walker “activism is my rent for living on this planet.” Activism is our social duty and it effects different people from around the world. And yet it is exhausting to be incessantly active. When a law passes and you win one battle, then several others are left to be addressed. It is not enough for your work to translate into law (though that is an important step in protecting people when their rights are infringed upon), it must transcend paperwork and change the mind of others. Only then do you and can you really succeed. That is why I am not as interested in working with groups as I am in helping individuals; I think some of the most powerful changes exist in the personal exchange.