Community Organizing Activism

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Decolonizing Community Organizing & Activism

KIRA SMALLS

On any given day you might observe a neighborhood mural bringing attention to the effects of pollution on the world’s oceans, a group of animal rights activists holding a demonstration while facilitating educational conversations, or social media posts with various consciousness-raising messages about race or sexuality. Activism has many different forms, but is defined specifically as action rendered to sway the public in regards to a social cause. Activism is also usually the result of community organizing, the intentional mobilizing of individuals to engage in collective, persuasive action.

Some of the first instances of community organizing in the U.S. extend back to the colonial period. Shoemakers went on the first recorded U.S. strike for higher wages in 1786. During the industrial revolution, factory workers went on strike and began to organize the first unions to advocate for labor rights. Long before what is now know as the Civil Rights Movement, Black people in the U.S. organized to fight against racism and slavery. A few examples include Nat Turner’s 1831 Rebellion and Harriet Tubman’s efforts to free slaves and work within the Underground Railroad.

However, much of what comes to mind for Americans in regards to community organizing and activism occured much later. The Women’s Suffrage movement of the early 1900’s fought for the right to vote for women. The Civil Rights Era of the 1950’s and 60’s included the organizing of Black activists in community spaces such as churches, to develop strategies of activism

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and pressure on the state. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the face of nonviolent activism with organizers executing diner sit-ins, bus boycotts, marches, and more. Other activist leaders like Malcom X and the Black Panthers took a more militant approach. In the 1960’s and 70’s LGBTQ+ activists organized and brought visibility through the Stonewall Riots, started by prominent leaders like Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman. Today, we have recently observed the organizing of activist movements ranging from the Women’s March, the March for Our Lives, the Standing Rock protests, and Black Lives Matter.

Recounting the history of activism shows the accessibility of this approach to social change. The title activist can belong to anyone who is passionate about a cause and willing to take action to persuade and apply pressure. However, community organizers have started to recognize the importance of critically examining how people engage with activism, because although this approach is often recognized for its propensity for radicalism, it has not totally escaped the influence of colonialism.

Colonial Background

As activists and organizers, many people have their intentions in the right place, but ignorance and prevalence of colonial mindsets can deter progress and create negative impact, despite intention. A large part of activism is advocating for historically oppressed and silenced communities; therefore, white and privileged allies often mean well, but can fall into the trap of colonizing even activist spaces if they are not mindful and aware.

One form of colonized activism is the co-option of activist movements by corporations looking to profit off of trendy messages. Often companies that utilize

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“Oftentimes the same colonial systems we are fighting have so deeply influenced our minds that we still choose to recognize the white and privileged above activists of color who have been doing the work just as long.”

colonial practices themselves, whether in the form of discriminatory behavior towards underrepresented communities or through exploitative profit models, employ what has been coined as “performative activism.” This includes adopting the language or symbols of activism (such as a hashtag or symbolic colors) with the motivation of selling a product rather than genuine passion for the cause.

Another regressive form of activism steeped in colonialism includes the “whitewashing” of activist movements. This happens when the main face of a cause continually ends up being a white person, even when people of color have long been involved in the work. For example, Greta Thunberg is a household name in the U.S., due to her climate activism and invitations to prestigious events like the United Nations Climate Action Summit. The work Thunberg does is great, but there is a reason some of her young counterparts of color have not gotten the same recognition. Have you heard of Mari Copeny, a young girl who has been raising awareness about the Flint water crisis since she was eight years old? What about Anna Lee Rain Yellowhammer who began protesting in 2016 against the Dakota Access Pipeline? Oftentimes the same colonial systems we are fighting have

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so deeply influenced our minds that we still choose to recognize the white and privileged above activists of color who have been doing the work just as long, if not longer.

On the flip side, colonial behaviors can lead allies in activism movements to tokenize their counterparts of color. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) activists will often be chosen by white organizers to be given a platform or more visibility based on if they are palatable enough - whether that means already well-known and accepted, more accessible and easy to schedule, easier to understand for white people, or “less hostile.” This behavior is dehumanizing and exploitative.

Allies within movements can and must decolonize their mentalities in order to ethically engage in movements of solidarity and system dismantlement. South Asian activist Harsha Walian, speaking of organizing and activism in alliance with Indigenous peoples, summarizes the obligation of allies who are committed to decolonization when she states, “Opposing the colonialism of the state and settler society, non-natives must recognize our own role in perpetuating colonialism within our solidarity efforts. We actively counter this by theorizing and discussing the nuanced issues of solidarity, leadership, strategy, and analysis not in abstraction but within our real and informed and sustained relationships with Indigenous peoples.”

Examples of Decolonization

Although, like all other forms of social impact, community organizing and activism struggles to shake off legacies of colonialism, there are theories, people, and organizations who are actively working to decolonize activist movements. This section highlights two examples of intentional decolonized approaches.

Veggie Mijas (https://www.veggiemijas. com) is “a women of color/trans folks of color/gender non-conforming collective for folks that are plant-based or are interested in a plant-based lifestyle that have marginalized identities and/or experiences with food insecurity/food apartheids.” The collective considers itself made up of “activistas de la tierra,” and works to utilize ancestral and Indigenous wisdom while providing plant-based food access through a variety of awareness-raising community and educational events. The organization boasts 11 chapters around the country, all organized by people of color.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline threatened water sources and sacred Indigenous sites, leading to the organizing and mobilization of many Indigenous activists.

The Indigenous International Youth

Council (IIYC) (https://indigenousyouth. org/) was one of the activist groups that sprang to action in protest of the pipeline, and has continued to expand through the development of multiple chapters across Turtle Island. IIYC’s decolonized approach can be witnessed in its reliance on the energy and innovation of youth leadership, its commitment to protecting the environmental elements, and its utilization of Indigenous spiritual practices in addition to standard social justice training principles. The IIYC website includes a powerful quotation from Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Nations: “ Know that you yourself are essential to this world. Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this world. Did you think you were put here for something less? In a Sacred Hoop of Life, there is no beginning and no ending.”

Conclusion

Community organizing and activism are powerful tools for change through the collective, and rely on revolutionary allyship. Genuine and effective allies understand their roles to be supportive, and oftentimes in the background, in order to provide voice and space to community leaders with lived experience. This type of solidarity looks like not speaking on a community’s behalf, and making sure to credit historically underrepresented communities for their work. Individual and organizational activists continue to make strides in shifting and redistributing power through decolonial modes of functioning, by rejecting traditional practices of Western colonialism and embracing new sources of wisdom and leadership structures. Harsha Walia writes, “Striving toward decolonization and walking together toward transformation requires us to challenge a dehumanizing social organization that perpetuates our isolation from each other and normalizes a lack of responsibility to one another and the Earth.” The future of community organizing and activism remains bright as activists remember this, and work to create solidarity through mindful connection and genuine decolonial practice.