The Invisible Activist
Who are the invisible social justice advocates? The ones who aren’t able to attend the protest. The ones who silently blog when no one is looking. The tumblr-ers. The wordpress-ers. The facebook-ers. The twitter-ers. Are they not activists? Or have we forgotten that there are still people whose voices are not being heard in activist circles?
I always say “your ableism is showing” to people who tell me I am a real “activist.” It is not because I do not care but it is because I do not have the time. The effort. The mental health to go out and about and risk my well being simply because your organization deems it necessary.
Dictionary.com defines an activist as “1. an especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause, especially a political cause. 2. of or pertaining to activism or activists. 3. advocating or opposing a cause or issue vigorously, especially a political cause.” So, as you can see there is not a checklist for being an activist. No one is telling you what you need to be doing because, simply it is up to a person’s discretion. You decide what activities to take part in.
Protests are cool. They are vintage — I mean you need only watch every documentary on political rights to know that. But, activism is evolving and blogging is becoming part of a big resistance that protests can’t tough. Blogging can reach millions of people — protests maybe thousands if you’re lucky. Millions if you’re “truly revolutionary.” But, blogging is doing something protests can’t: spread ideas to millions of people without much time, effort or energy.
And it’s awesome for those of us who suffer from high social anxiety. Because in a crowd of people, those of us who are afraid to talk are invisible. We are not being heard because we don’t want to be. We are expected to follow fucked up rules to appease to the larger leadership within such an activist circle.
This is a call for a broader definition of activism. I am a social justice activist. I am a blogger. I am here to fuck your shit up.
