October 2017

Radical Activism: Love Thyself
By: Summer Damra

“People say things

Meant to rip you in half

But you hold the power to not

Turn their words into a knife

And cut yourself

-Rupi Kaur"

​

It’s hard not to react to the ongoing events of the world, especially when they reaffirm everything

“wrong” with humanity. With every swipe on our phones and click on our computers, there always seems

to be a story about the Trump administration, extreme hate crimes, terrorism, and natural disasters. We all

need to turn it off.

Yes, you heard me.

Turn it off. Block all of it: Facebook, news subscriptions, useless websites that go on and on about

negative events. Don’t feel guilty about doing it, either. A lot of social justice movements and activists try

to shame their followers for not “caring enough” about issues concerning their communities, if they

decided to take a step back or drop out completely. This shame stems from the organizer’s own

insecurities and attempts to cultivate fear within their followers to make them push forward with the

movement. In all honestly, if you developed an unhealthy mindset about the world and yourself, the only

movement you need to push for is the movement toward caring about what you’re feeding your mind and

body.

Drawing from my own personal experiences, some Palestinian activists I’ve met in my life, tried to

invalidate my ancestral connection to Palestine, because I decided to no longer be an “active” advocate of

the issues of my homeland. To be told that I am not a real Palestinian because I didn’t “care enough”

really hurted me. It took me years to understand that I am not the problem; It’s the rampant amount of

judgement and shaming we all project unto each other, because we are insecure about not being enough of

whatever we are culturally, ethnically, and racially. Communities of color, unintentionally, break down

their own communities when they judge themselves and their members for not reaching an arbitrary

criteria of “caring enough” about a certain issue that affects them.

The root of this judgement is when we value the physical form of activism-the protesting, angry debates,

petitions, policy work, and club meetings. When other people do not value what we value, we tend to

judge them for not being like “us.” This is not fair to each other and, most importantly, to ourselves. We

all want to feel loved and belonged, whether that be with our families or complete strangers. But, feeling

that sense of love and belonging is rarely expressed with the most physical forms of radical activism. In

all honestly, this sense of love and belonging cannot be cultivated at a march or in a fierce debate. It’s

cultivated within ourselves and with each other.