Activism Today
My Version of Activism
When thinking of myself as an activist, I believe myself to have strong beliefs and leadership skills to lead other activists. I think I would be a loud but peaceful activist as I don’t believe violence to fix things but instead words. It is important that when speaking up you treat others how you would want to be treated and show them respect even if you do not receive it from them. I believe that part of being an activist is when seeing and standing up for an issue that you also show knowledge and understanding.
Types of Activism
In today’s society there has been a lot of human rights activism pertaining to racism, gay rights, and gender equality. We have seen this largely through social media, demonstrations, and protests. Including some more recent and well known protests such as the protests for George Floyd. Most recently, the US as well as many other countries are in protest with Ukraine against their battle with Russia. We see this activism on the news, in social media, and even in everyday discussion as it is such a current topic. Gay rights activism has lead to us celebrating gay rights in June during what is known as Pride Month. In this month there are many parades and demonstrations to help bring awareness and support towards the LGBTQ+ and allies.
Effective Activism
I believe activism to be a very effective method. Through the use of activism in protests, demonstrations, social media, boycotts, strikes, and petitions; we have been able to work out many problems and bring awareness to others. Through activism we have gained many things such as the right to vote, same sex marriage, and diversity. This activism has lead us to achieve so many things that most of us can’t even imagine being without but through perseverance and activism we have gained the things we strive for.
I would like to start by saying that the way you organized your post was great. The use of headings was a great tool to separate your ideas and topics. You also did a good job with transitioning between each topic, which made this an easy read. It also kept your thoughts together which then led my own thoughts to be grouped together instead of being all over the place.
Regarding what you said about activism, I agree with most of what you said. I too have strong beliefs and leadership skills which can not only allow us to lead others, but it can also open new doors regarding activism. For example, you stated that it is important to speak up for others and show them respect. This can be done with those strong beliefs and leadership skills that we both have. You also stated that being an activist is standing up for what you believe in when you see it and acknowledge it. I too think this is key and can be very impactful if done.
You went on to mention how we see activism all around us today and I think this was a great thing to point out. Our society has changed and evolved to have new norms, a new openness, and more opportunities. I think that a lot of people, a lot of activists, had a major role in this change in our society. Without people standing up for what they believe in, things would not evolve or change.
Lastly, I too think that activism can be extremely effective. If done respectfully and in the right manner, anything is possible. Showing others how you feel makes them open up and see issues in a new light and being that activist for your organization or your belief can be the start of something new and world changing. We should all strive to stand up for what we believe and want to pursue in life.
I agree with your own version of activism; from my understanding, peaceful protests make much more progress than violent protests. I also hate the escalation of violence, it is sometimes necessary, but sometimes it seems too much. Violence is also taken too far online. There’s lots of threats of violence, but also a lot of insults and arguments over small issues. I’ve seen videos of people voicing their opinions in respectful manners and the comment sections are full of people degrading them for it.
People on social media are too comfortable with spewing out insults under the guise of anonymity. Many of those are people who are activists in their own right, but oil on a fire only makes it burn brighter; to bring people to your cause respect and peace is needed.
I also agree with you that activism is effective. It’s how people have been heard throughout history. You touched on many more modern day examples, so thinking of more historical examples, we also have those advocating for black people’s rights, women’s right to vote, and prohibitionists.
The US is full of people who fight for what they believe is right, and there have always been people like that. People who change their minds, or speak up, like anti-prohibitionists, will also come out to fight against what others’ managed to achieve, whether that’s for better or for worse. Therefore, I think everybody needs to be a little of an activist themselves. Advocating is highly important, but taking that one step further to activism is almost more important. You really need both; you need your message heard, but you also need it to be so loud and prevalent that it can not be ignored.
I respect your position on this issue and not just because I agree with most, if not all, of what you said. Activism, for you, seems to be about helping change the world for the better, and a pure, good foundation like that is deserving of respect.
I Like how you talk about your own version of activism. I like that you have what activism means to you and I do agree with you about them having strong beliefs and leadership skills to lead other activists. I can see you being a peaceful activist and I think violence doesn’t fix everything and I believe that words are better to fix things too. I also think being and activist is seeing and standing up for an issue you know the knowledge and understanding the point of being and activist. I agree with all of the types of activism that you have from racism to gender equality. It made sense when you brought up the George Floyd protest because I think it had a form of activism in it. When you brought up the protest with Ukraine against their battle with Russia and we do see both of the protests in the news, and we do see many parades for gay pride as pride month and it supports towards LGBTQ+ and allies. Activism is a very effective method; throughout the years we have been able to work out these issues and the problems and they were able to try and be aware of others. Activism has led us to achieve so many things that most of us can’t even imagine being without but through perseverance and activism we have gained the things we strive for. After reading this blog it made me think about how activism has changed the world today and what we can do to change this and make it more effective now that we have been talking about activism from the past from all of the protests that have changed peoples prospective even from the George Floyd Protest. So, activism is an important topic to talk about
When reading your blog post I want to first say that I like the way you have organized your writing. You seem to be very understanding in what point you’re trying to make by giving off different examples of what different activities are going around today’s world. I feel that your blog post can open many people’s eyes based on the different topics you talked about in your writing. I can totally agree with your own version of activism. I feel that it’s very important to understand what leadership is and what responsibilities come with being a leader. I love how you were able to understand that violence isn’t always the answer in everything and how people can be peaceful and powerful by using just their voice.
Starting off with you talking about racism, gay rights, and gender equality I feel like stuff like this should be talked about very more due to the society we live in today.
I feel like these topics can help educate people about how everyone’s different and people should be happy and comfortable on how they want to live their lives. Learning about different people’s cultural backgrounds can help others understand why they are different in many people’s eyes in a good way. I also liked how you gave different examples on how activism spreads throughout the world such as news, social media, demonstrations, and protests. When talking about different social media platforms and what goes on in the world made me realize that people need to understand what these social media posts and protests are really about.
When learning from these different sources you can also think back on how and what you can do to help educate and teach others if they don’t fully understand or agree with what’s going on in today’s world. Next, I liked the way you gave examples on the war between Russia and Ukraine. The reason I liked this idea is because you’re able to talk about most recent events that include activism in today’s world. Bringing up topics like this can help people understand better that activism happens in many different ways and this blog can help people realize that activism goes on all around us.
Overall, I felt like your blog covered a lot of information that we will need to take more seriously instead of thinking it’s a joke as if this could never happen to us later in the future.