#Challenge Accepted- The Perils of Digital Amnesia (part 2)

RIGHTSACTIVISM

Aug 9

In this article learn

Content warning: Me Too (sexual harassment), CAA movement, Black Lives Matter, Lebanon, Kashmir)

What is Selective Activism?

Selective activism is when you can post about Black lives matter in America but not about the unconstitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act here in India. Or find it easy to trend “Pray for Lebanon” about the situation in Beirut but stay silent about the state of Kashmir or the many pogroms and hate campaigns waged against minorities in your own country. Selective activism is validating the struggles of one society or a section of it while feigning ignorance about the struggles of another, especially your own. The prevalence of such selective activism is no secret, but have you ever wondered where it stems from? At the root of it is bias. A usually deep rooted, racial, casteist, and classist one, where we don't realize that just by these actions, we are placing more value in one human life over the other.[1]

Online Activism

Online activism can be a great tool to create awareness. K-Pop stans using a racist twitter campaign by trending fancams on the same tag, or busting President Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally by entering thousands of fake registrations are some unique and innovative instances that serve positive outcomes.

But there is something to be said about the varying impact of digital activism across different societal contexts. In countries like Turkey, Chile, or Hong Kong — where channels for free speech are more limited than in the West— hashtags and challenges can be an avenue for digital mobilization and global awareness.[2] In India’s diverse political landscape, such mainstream populist activism is often celebrated on one hand while it can be dangerous to comment on state-sponsored atrocities online on the other. It is also why changing your profile picture to red for Kashmir is different to posting for Blackout Tuesday in America. Nonetheless, a goal oriented approach will tell you that the internet’s constrained shelf life hinders the path to long-lasting impact.

Digital activism is useful only when the ideas it purports are implemented in society in an appropriate and equally vociferous manner.

Moreover, it is prone to being performative and self-serving because of how quickly it is rewarded and tends to block resources instead of amplifying it. The New York Times’ travel reporter Tariro Mzezewa tweeted how the original Turkish hashtags about domestic violence and femicide translated to ‘Say No to Violence Against Women’ and ‘Enforce Istanbul Convention’ but were eventually dropped as the challenge went viral and crossed borders.[3] Similarly, under Blackout Tuesday, millions of Americans posted black squares in solidarity of the Black Lives Matter movement that only restricted constructive social justice work from being accessible to those who relied on it.[4]

Why do people do it then?

The bandwagon effect is why. The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override. In social psychology, this tendency of people to align their personal beliefs and behaviors with those of a group is also called "herd mentality" or “groupthink.”[5]

What’s wrong with the bandwagon effect?

“When a group of people all start thinking the same way and don’t question what the whole group thinks, everyone’s ability to use their critical thinking skills just goes out the window.“

“Our schools and our culture have failed to teach us to think for ourselves. So many people just blindly follow what other people tell them without questioning it.”

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Additionally, it leads to us categorizing people into columns of good and bad for having hopped on this bandwagon or not, overlooking the deeper rooted misunderstandings and lack of knowledge that might persist regardless of one’s involvement in an internet trend.

Unlearn

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Influential people, in India and abroad have the tendency to co-opt social movements and narrow the scope of its reach by centering the conversation around themselves and isolating existing ground workers. The Me Too movement was an example of this. There were incredible field activists working in the area of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct long before these movements rose to popularity.[7] And instead of using the campaigns’ virality to shine a light on their work and ensuring the intersectionality of the movement, the fight was limited to a select circle of privileged women.

Hence, we need to be more inclusive in the social circles we extend support to. A quick internet trend is like a band-aid to a deep festering wound. Its effects are short term when we should be looking at long term, long lasting impact. It is also why selective activism fails to address the issues behind the cause at hand- the politics behind the oppression of black lives in America, or the misogyny and patriarchy of societies that enable crimes against women not just in Turkey, but across the world.

It is important to know when to step back and amplify the right voices. Not every movement of empowerment is ours to appropriate. Best way to do that is to center such movements around real victims, survivors and activists. Actress Susan Sarandon had a refreshing take to being nominated for the challenge when she did just that.

While global feminist partnerships are desirable, they must be based on a notion of equality and dialogue.[8]

We must realize that every society has its issues and that it is unfair to reduce the identity of a people to the equivalent of their problems which the savior complex quite often perpetuates.

A female-centric movement is only as powerful as its most vulnerable participants. Hence, there is the need for more equitable and intersectional distribution of power among women the world over. We rise by lifting others, when the other is lifted unconditionally and without prejudice.