From The Mouths of Activists
Their Perspective on What’s Right and Wrong In Their Fight for Liberation
I’ve spent most of my writing career focusing on discrimination. While I am new to the writing game, my familiarity with narratives and real-world experience in activism and advocacy are sufficient, in my humble opinion. Being within the intersections of identities, my personal narrative has been defined by defying what the status quo says about my identities. Yet my radicalization truly began when including others became paramount. The individuality many of us fall for is understandable when considering literature or discourse around community leaders. We are quick to point to literary heroes like Frodo Baggins as a savior, all the while forgetting that he belonged to a fellowship and that Sam rarely left his side. In the real world, we commemorate activists like Cesar Chavez or Harvey Milk with a holiday or remembrance day, as if agricultural workers and the gay communities are liberated from harsh working conditions or social discrimination.
Yet we overlook how the men above were leaders of movements, which can only happen when a community comes together. Another group of activists and advocates are the women and other marginalized genders who have been the cornerstone of their respective communities and have given us the courage to speak up. Typically, their voices are drowned out because of discrimination and society’s attitudes towards true liberation. I often wonder about the everyday people we never hear about, that have laid the groundwork for us without the recognition and remembrance days they so rightfully deserve. Just as the universe is infinite, everyday people choose to dedicate their lives and time to liberation efforts. In order to fill in the gaps, I created a Google Form that I plastered across social media, asking activists and advocates to answer four questions about their experience. This article breaks down their responses with their names and/or locations with their consent. At the end of this article, I provide a summary of their collective responses.
Note: Those who participated were volunteers and therefore not financially compensated for their participation. For those who wish to support the people I discussed above and below, their websites and/or social media accounts can be found in the reference section at the end of the article.
The Participants
Below are the participants by name and location. Their initials, which are provided after the colon, are how I will refer to them in the sections below. Participants are organized by their location from the West to East coasts of the United States.
Joana Munson from Oregon: JM
Summer Chapla from Chico, California: SC
S.P. from Fresno, California: SP
T.A. from Wisconsin: TA
Dana Cole from Northwestern Georgia: DC
DMP from New Jersey: DMP
Questions and Responses
Each heading is a question indicated by “Q” followed by the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. The responses are broken down into two parts: the form of the response and then the participant’s responses. Regarding the response forms are: multiple choice, or MC, and short response, or SR. For the three MC’s, Q1-3, the text breakdowns are accompanied by graphs and charts. Q1 and 3 have an “other” option that is identified for the participants with an “O” after their initials: “PA, O”. The SR, Q4, is text-only and verbatim what each participant wrote. If editing took place on any text-based responses, it is indicated by an “E” after the participant’s initials: “PA, E”.
Q1: How are you building community?
Responses: MC, check all that apply
With an organization
Attending marches/sit ins
Using social media/newsletters
Other…
Participants:
JM: Using social media/newsletters
SC: With an organization
SP: Using social media/newsletters
TA, O: Attending marches/sit ins; Using social media/newsletters; Shopping locally, boycotting
DC, O: With an organization; Using social media/newsletters; Increasing activity in our union; at work (union organizing)
DMP: With an organization; Attending marches/sit ins
Bar Grap, Q1:
Alt Text: Image of the results for “How are you building community? (check all that apply.)”. “With an organization”, reports 3 responses. “Attending marches/sit ins”, reports 2 responses. “Using social media/newsletters”, received 4 responses. “Shopping locally, boycotting” and “At work (Union organizing)” both received one response each.
Q2: How many years have you participated in community building?
Responses: MC, choose one
0-3 years
3-5 years
5-10 years
10+ years
Participants:
JM: 0-3 years
SC: 0-3 years
SP: 0-3 years
TA: 3-5 years
DC: 0-3 years
DMP: 10+ years
Pie Chart, Q2:
Alt Text: Image of the results for “Years in community building”. “0-3 years”, reports 66.7%. “3-5 years”, reports 16.7%. “5-10 years”, received 0 responses. “10+ years” reports 16.7%.
Q3: Which community are you focused on?
Responses: MC, check all that apply
Anti-racism advocacy/activism
Disability/Elderly care
Community Garden
Education
Other
Participants:
JM: Anti-racism advocacy/activism; Disability/Elderly care; Education
SC, O: Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense—Working on getting guns off the streets and out of schools, protecting children
SP, O: Domestic Violence
TA: Anti-racism advocacy/activism; Disability/Elderly care; Community Garden; Education
DC, O: Anti-racism advocacy/activism; Education; labor rights, civic organizing (voting, involvement in community government, etc.)
DMP: Education; Moral budgets, anti war, affordable housing
Bar Graph, Q3:
Alt Text: Image of the results for “Focus of community building (check all that apply.)”. “Anti-racism advocacy/activism”, received 3 responses. “Disability/Elderly care”, received 2 responses. “Education”, received 4 responses. “Moms Demand for Gun Sense”, “Labor Rights”, “Domestic violence”, “Community Garden” and “Moral budgets” all received one response each.
Q4: Based on your time in community building, what do you love, dislike, or want to see improve?
Participants:
JM:
“I’d like to see more expanded ideas of who can be an advocate and all the ways to help.”
SC:
“I wish there was more action and less talking. I’m not sure if this is in line with your question, but my group (the California chapter of Moms Demand Action) zooms quite often and discusses what we have done in the past, talks about what we want to do in the future, but maybe I haven’t been involved long enough to feel like we have been actively working on something in the year I have been participating. I did just join the subgroup cohort Demand A Seat which starts this week, and involves working directly with gun-sense candidates, so I’m hoping that will be more hands on/active. I also belong to the subgroup for gun violence survivors, which hasn’t been very involved, but I haven’t tried very hard to participate in it either."
SP:
“Love: Advocates want to reduce harm through support and education. Many advocates also go to therapy (for self-care, mental health, enrichment, etc.) Improve: Language, checking biases, cultural sensitivity, etc.”
TA:
“Definitely need an inclusion or education of diversity focus. The Palestinian response as a Country has made that glaringly obvious.”
DC:
“I don't know. It's just hard. I'm tired ALL THE TIME. And it's hard to get others to be more involved because THEY'RE tired TOO!”
DMP:
“Listen to people most impacted by issue. Use collective power to act to get reactions, not just mobilization. I wish I could talk to other groups doing work around fully funded and equitable public education more often. We need to share info. Our issues around the country are much more similar than we realize. Florida and New Jersey have a lot of common problems with developers, transparency etc.”
Summary
Below the summary is broken down into three parts. In the first part, each question is related for context. For the second part, I’ll list my non-surprises and my surprises, where applicable. In the final part, I’ll briefly discuss my oversights and what needs to be changed for future surveys.
Q1: How are you building community?
Non-surprises
The participants who use social media or newsletters for their activism/advocacy.
Participants who work with an organization
Surprises
Those who selected ‘other’ was smaller than I anticipated
Participants who attend marches and sit-ins
Oversights, Changes, Glows
For the oversights, I think I overlooked boycotting and working with a union as options. My rationale when creating these options was to consider safety and accessibility. Should I provide a similar survey in the future, I would add boycotts and unions to the list. I think the one glow with this question is that I provided the ‘Other’ option to make up for my unintentional oversight.
Q2: How many years have you participated in community building?
Surprises
Participants who are fairly new to activism/advocacy
The single participant who has over a decade of activism/advocacy experience
Oversights, Changes, Glows
The main oversight here, and throughout the survey, is the number of participants. While six participants can provide great insight, as we can plainly see, the number of participants who are fairly new is the biggest surprise for me. For a future survey, I’d probably keep the responses open longer. While I cannot control people’s experiences, I’m curious about those who are in the intermediary and advanced stages of their particular activism. The oversights and changes with this question are the cornerstone of my growth as a survey writer/data collector. My one glow with this question in particular is highlighting how many activists/advocates are in their beginner stage and therefore need those who are more seasoned to guide them.
Q3: Which community are you focused on?
Non-surprises
Participants whose focus is education
Those who are focused on anti-racism activism/advocacy
Surprises
A two-for-one: the number of participants who focus on education
Participants who are focused at the local level of community care
Oversights, Changes, Glows
In a similar vein as Q1, the oversight, changes, and glow lie within the options provided.
Q4: Based on your time in community building, what do you love, dislike, or want to see improve?
Non-surprise
the vulnerability to admit the difficulty in advocacy and activism
Oversights, Changes, Glows
With any open response question, it’s best to walk the line with vagueness and specificity. I think this is the one question provided that has no oversight or changes because each answer was as I anticipated: passionate, vulnerable, and action-based.
Conclusion
One of the absolute joys I have as a writer is to pass on information. Whether I gather this myself or share what others have to say, it truly fills my cup to be able to connect with others. Yet I would be remiss if I didn’t admit to my own frustrations with connecting with people. As much of a community as we can build online, this survey revealed something other writers, activists, and advocates have spoken about: the shortsightedness of social media activism. Thankfully we can connect but there’s a chasm between those of us who are beginners and in the advanced stages. For example, I would say I’m in between a beginner and intermediary levels due to my professional and academic experiences. Where I am today is largely due to those before me who made sacrifices financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually while paving the way for myself and others. For those who participated, I thank you for your wisdom and the work you’re doing to make the world a better place.
References
Dana Cole. @danacoledares on Twitter, Threads, YouTube.
Dana Patton. @danaMpatton on Twitter.
Joana Munson. @munson_jo on Twitter and @jojomunson on TikTok.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, 2024. Retreived 7 April 2024 from, https://momsdemandaction.org/.