Activism, Privilege, and Assumptions
There are many ways to fight a fight.
A Prelude of Context: I literally woke up with this cartoon in my head. I don’t know why. I’m not one to put much stock in dreams and I loathe the ambiguity of symbolism, but what I journaled after waking—what you’re about to read—tells me why, perhaps, my subconscious spat out this graphic. This render is the best ChatGPT and I could do. Does it even make sense? I don’t know.
Welcome to the first entry of Unfiltered: The Alice Diaries.
Some people think of me as an activist but I don’t. Activists try to change things. I try to help those who have already changed.
Maybe this is because I see how hard it is to change a mind, to soften a heart. And so I’d rather assist those who have already exercised their bravery. Maybe it’s selfish. Maybe it’s easier. But I don’t think laziness is why I do this; rather, I have always loathed and resisted when people try to change me. In contrast, I have always felt humbled in gratitude when people have tried to help.
How privileged it must be to protest freely. They say the same but opposite: How privileged it must be to not protest at all. The assumptions stun me further into silence. Do they not have a job to lose? An employer to please? A health issue they need their employment’s insurance to cover? Are they not in the midst of grief? In the heart-numbing desperation of sharing flowers and pastries and interspecies friendship videos to try and cling to happy reasons not to kill themselves? Are they not in the fragile stages of repair with a sensitive friend, an estranged mother, or an evil custody battle where a controversial opinion could cost them their child?
There are so many reasons why people do not appear to protest. Some are as indifferent and callous as activists accuse. Yet others are worthy of protest on their own, like the threat of being fired for publicly posting an opinion different than the CEO’s.
Sacrificing our humanity for corporate interest is easy to criticize, but it is the corporation that provides countless Americans with access to basic human needs. Or have these critics never lived in rural America? Have they not seen that the only shop for miles and miles is a Walmart with five fast food chain options? Do they not know what it’s like to earn $7.25 per hour and pay $4.25 per gallon just to get to work? Do they not know that thousands of U.S. families live paycheck to paycheck and many are on the brink of homelessness, just one life accident away from total devastation?
I have no problem with activists activating. For the causes my conscience demands I rally behind, I support them. My problem lies with people’s assumptions of perceived indifference. “Privilege.”
What I argue is that support shows up in different ways. Sometimes it is a post on Instagram. Other times, it is an anonymous donation. Sometimes support looks like helping out a family member in a tough spot, or caretaking for an aging parent, or ghostwriting a blog post you’d be left unemployed and uninsured for sharing from your own account—and then what use would you be to any cause when you need to scramble for new employment, new housing, and new health insurance to survive?
Sometimes activism is in secret.
How many Jewish people were hidden in the walls and floorboards of Nazi-passing Germans? It took surface complicity with one of the world’s most notorious regimes to silently save lives. Think of the judgment that came their way from resistance rebels who had no fucking clue.
It is natural, perhaps, to assume indifference and worse from the silent. Who among us can say we have not judged? Snap judgments are part of our survival.
Yet so is compassion. Patience. Empathy. Curiosity over condemnation.
I think we need diverse expressions of humanity to help solve a diversity of problems. The problem of hunger and the problem of red tape. The problem of environmental collapse and the problem of prison reform. The problem of elderly abuse and the problem of war crimes. The problem of Big Pharma and the problem of genocide. The problem of child labor and the problem of animal cruelty. The problem of unfettered capitalism and the problem of crony-filled communism. The problem of homelessness and the problem of child trafficking. So many fight-worthy problems.
We have always had a diverse array of problems. We may always need a diverse array of solutions.
We need diverse expressions of activism. And some of these will appear very, very quiet. Undetectable. Two-faced. While it’s true that some simply don’t care, it is also true that we are each allowed to pick our battles. Some of us can pick twelve at a time. Others of us can devote our lives to only one. Some of us will be loud. Others will be quiet.
My point is that making assumptions and casting stones is not only short-sighted and often erroneous—it takes time and energy away from noble causes. It risks alienating those who might have been on the verge of joining the fight and now feel scolded and shamed, triggering a backlash effect. A scathing beratement to do better is not the same as an invitation to help make a change.
Even so, I think we need the scathing beraters and public scolders. Some people may only respond to such aggressive confrontation, although I don’t know who. Maybe the sting of shame is the planting of a seed that may ripen into productive fruit.
Yet I also think we need the silent double-agents. We need the ones willing to appear as “part of the problem,” who know in the quiet of their own conscience that they are, in fact, fighting the good fight. These people ran the Underground Railroad. They helped to hide Tutsis in Burundi and Rwanda. Today, they help gay, female, and atheist freethinkers flee Muslim-majority countries. They gently nudge churches and corporate conglomerates toward change they would be unable to if they didn’t appear to be one of the fold.
If true change and activism is what we wish to see, may we please stop judging. May we please focus on our own fights and not condemn others for having theirs. May we grieve side by side without anyone saying, “I told you so.”
A Post-Script of Context: All I had to do was go on Instagram mid-pee-break to further understand where this comic and journal entry are coming from. Maybe it’s because social media is screaming at me to spread awareness about…everything. Again. As always.
“If you ever wondered how you’d respond to the Holocaust, your silence is the answer!”
“If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention!”
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem!”
To the best of my research, that last quote is attributed to journalist Syndey J. Harris. You know the part people often leave out?
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, but the perpetual human predicament is that the answer soon poses its own problems.” — Sydney J. Harris
I’m Alice Greczyn, a writer, among other things. This post is from the section of my Substack I’m calling “Unfiltered: The Alice Diaries.” Unlike the content on my main feed, which I take care to edit, fact-check, and link sources to, this section is for my stream of consciousness. It is a return to writing that I needed to do for me, shared in case it might offer something of value to you. Thanks for reading.
I'm one of those people that is not an activist. I never have been. It doesn't mean I don't care about many of the problems in the world and in our country. I'm also not out about my belief system, though many would say I need to be loud about it. I don't have the luxury to do that, just, as you say, many don't have the luxury to be loud with their activism.
I've wrestled with feeling I'm less than, because I don't have the type of personality that allows me to be comfortable participating in rallies or calling congressmen and women. I've learned to accept it.
All this to say thank you for this post. I understand the world is a mess, but grace is necessary for those who can't be the active participant that others want them to be.
"How many Jewish people were hidden in the walls and floorboards of Nazi-passing Germans? It took surface complicity with one of the world’s most notorious regimes to silently save lives. Think of the judgment that came their way from resistance rebels who had no fucking clue."
Very good. I know some in the very environments I protest who are quietly helping people find safety and eventually leave in ways I never could.