Grey Lion For President

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You’ve donated, you’ve protested, you’ve self-educated…. Now what? How to make your activism and advocacy permanent.

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Why we have to keep up the momentum.

With protests in all 50 U.S. states, as well as countries across the world (including in Australia), the current #BlackLivesMatter movement is being considered one of the biggest (if not the biggest) civil rights movement in history.

But even if you’ve contributed on your part – by donating, starting conversations, marching, or self-educating, or all of the above – the work isn’t done.

For this movement to be truly successful, and for the results to be long-lasting (i.e. promises to defund the police are followed through on reform is assured and racist systems are dismantled), we all have to ensure that our support of BLM continues beyond the news cycle, after the protests have ended and after it’s no longer “trendy.”

Want to make being an ally a permanent change? Swipe through.

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Keep self-educating.

Education isn’t a one-and-done affair. For us to be truly informed, we have to continuously improve and grow. What we’ve learnt so far is good, what we will learn in the future is even better.

Make a conscious decision to stay up-to-date and informed about not only what’s going on in your country, with your country’s BIPOC, but around the world. Make sure that your allyship is current and ever-evolving.

One tip we learnt from activist Maggie Zhou (@yemagz) is to set a reminder in your calendar a month from now. Use it to check that you’re still reading, learning, talking, and sharing the way we’re doing right now.

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Change your habits.

It’s almost impossible (not to mention exhausting) for anyone, no matter how involved, to be in a constant state of activism. But one thing we can all do is make long-lasting changes to our habits, so that eventually these small acts of activism become automatic. Some long-term changes you can make today:

Diversify your social media feeds. Take an afternoon and follow BIPOC activists and leaders on IG and Twitter, so that your feed becomes inclusive. Tap for suggestions.

Diversify your media intake. Actively go out and support BIPOC movies, shows, plays, and performances. Not only are you helping them financially, but you’re continually consuming non-white content.

Build continual learning into your day. Look at the podcasts, YouTube channels, and news outlets you currently follow. Make an effort to include ones that feature BIPOC voices. They don’t even have to be political: plenty of smart, funny Black people talk about pop culture too.

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Consider how you use your money.

In the era of late-stage capitalism, money talks. Whether it’s boycotting a brand because of their unjust values or spending your $ at a co-op instead of a supermarket, how we use our money has a huge impact on individuals and organizations. Have a think about how you can best use your funds to support change long-term.

Can you afford to make your single donation a recurring one? Can you commit to a small donation fortnightly or monthly? Will your employer or an organization match your contribution to make it go further?

Think about your buying habits. Can you buy your groceries from a BIPOC-owned business? Your books? Your art, your clothes, your beauty products?

Is it an option to buy directly from the owner, instead of through an e-tailer or department store?

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Seize opportunities to be anti-racist.

If you’ve made a point to call out racists, speak to family members and speak up for BIPOC people during this time, keep it up!

Continue calling out racism when you see it.

Stand up and support your BIPOC friends.

Continue posting and calling attention to resources.

To avoid burnout, come up with scripts for certain situations e.g. someone saying “All Lives Matter”.

Set boundaries—if someone is continually racist after education, be prepared to remove them from your life.

If you make mistakes, that’s okay! Learn from them and then share the lesson with people like you.

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Keep turning out.

Small actions count, but don’t forget about the big ones too.

Vote! Research who you’re voting for, what they stand for, and what their plans are. Don’t know? Get involved and ask.

Question and call out politicians. Politicians are there to serve the people. Continue to email, call and question them on important issues and make sure they stand by them.

Protest, when it’s safe to. Protesting is a historic and important form of activism, and it works best in numbers. Keep up-to-date with protests and get out there when you can!

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“Revolution is not a one-time event.” Audre Lorde

If you’re out here saying shit like “everyone who liked Harry Potter is probs a cop now”, or “Harry Potter was always trash anyway” that’s.... not it. It was popular for a reason. Millions of people, trans, queer, POC, Black, Jewish, etc. knew and loved it for years. If you’re only now saying it’s trash because it’s confirmed that the author is a bigot, that’s kinda fucked.

Firstly, you should be looking critically at all media you consume regardless of if you’re aware of the author’s viewpoints, secondly, you’re implying that everything made by bigoted, racist, homophobic people is automatically bad writing. Unfortunately, that’s not true.

You cannot only read stuff from “unproblematic” authors. It’s literally impossible. For one, authors aren’t always stupid enough to share their bigoted opinions on twitter for the world to see. And if you’ve read anything by a white person from the 19th (hell, 20th) century, they’re almost definitely a huge fucking racist at the very least. You can, and should, make an effort to consume media made by people of a variety of sexual orientations, gender identities, racial identities, etc. But this doesn’t ensure that all of those people will be perfect unproblematic angels either.

The fact is, bad people make good things. Bad people will make stuff you like. You cannot tie your sense of worth or your personal morals to whether or not you watch or read the “right” stuff made by the “right” people. And if you struggle with this, you’re not alone.

If you’ve ever heard of cognitive dissonance, it basically means that there’s a distressing situation that is creating inconsistency/conflict, so your brain makes an effort to try and restore balance. For example, you know that Harry Potter is a good book series and that JK Rowling is a bad person. But those opposing thoughts occurring simultaneously make your brain feel Bad so in order to get rid of that distress, you either start thinking “well Harry Potter wasn’t good actually” or “well JK can’t really be a bad person”. You’ll see this kind of thing happen all the time with fans of musicians who turn out to be shitheads. And it’s ultimately very harmful.

Make an effort to reconcile the conflicting thoughts in your head. And try not to hold yourself up as the pinnacle of unproblematicness, like in general. We all have stuff we need to work towards, and no one is completely free of biases and prejudice.

And if you’re a Harry Potter fan feeling guilty or uncomfortable because of JKR, here’s my advice to you:

It is definitely important to look closely at problematic aspects of Harry Potter that we, as children, may have overlooked. Initially I hadn’t considered that Cho Chang’s name was racist. I never thought about how the goblins running the bank could be seen as antisemitic. You’ve seen the posts/threads; there’s a laundry list of stuff wrong with these books that deserves to be pointed out. But not recognizing this stuff when you were literally in elementary school doesn’t make you a bad person.

The beauty of reading things while being socially aware means that we can look at something critically and still enjoy its content. No, this does not mean the author is totally dead and no you can’t keep saying “Hatsune Miku wrote Harry Potter”. You cannot ignore where the content came from and pretend that Rowling’s bigoted ideologies didn’t seep into her writing. Acknowledge that JK wrote Harry Potter, that you enjoy(ed) Harry Potter, and that JK is also a huge transphobe amongst other things. All of these things can be true simultaneously.

As for what you can do moving forward, 1. if you must, buy HP merch from indie creators and buy used copies/pirate the books, and 2. make an effort to read different fantasy books written by trans/nb authors. You cannot erase the fact that your childhood was shaped by these books, but you can ensure that your future is shaped by something different, and better.