Before you organize a protest, ask yourself a few basic things:
-what do you want?
-who has the power to give you what you want?
-who has power over the people who have the power to give you what you want?
-how will the protest get those people to give you what you want?
-what do you want?
-who has the power to give you what you want?
-who has power over the people who have the power to give you what you want?
-how will the protest get those people to give you what you want?
If you answered one of these questions with "it will get media coverage," then ask yourself a follow-up question:
-How will getting media coverage get the people who have the power to give you what you want to give you what you want?
-How will getting media coverage get the people who have the power to give you what you want to give you what you want?
This is not shared with judgment or snark. These are basic strategic considerations for organizing 101 that I spent the majority of my life as an activist completely ignorant of. We are taught that activism is performative, its about SHOWING that we care or that we are right.
But unfortunately, being right or moral or just never prevailed against entrenched power, money, and oppressive systems. The issues that we're all working on are way too important for us to sleep well at night because "well at least we tried."
