Steps towards conscious and informed activism

Hi all! My name is Gloria Oladipo, a long-time Chicago resident and sophomore at Cornell University.

Activism isn’t about trying to build up your high school resume. It’s not about being featured on your local news stations or being chosen to interview with a popular online magazine. Activism is about using your social location and the tools that exist within it to positively change the world around you.

Too often, people who are “doing the work,” particularly those working outside of their social location (i.e. white people working in poor, black neighborhoods), use activism as a convenient way to build up their personal resume. Instead, they should be focusing on the lives they can improve with the work they do.

That’s why it is so important to keep the focus of your activism on what you can do to help those around you and to help the communities being broken on local and national levels. The point of grassroots organizing ia never on what you can be, but always on what you can do.

The classic saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has a very important place in the sphere of organizing.

If a cause you are passionate about already has a group actively organizing around it, it is much better to contribute your efforts to helping the active group rather than trying to start your own organization.

There are so many moving parts in making an organization successful: the person willing to carry out administrative tasks, the liaison responsible for creating connections between different groups, and the person responsible for getting boots on the ground. With all the different roles to play, it’s important to apply your talents in the most efficient way possible to support your team. If you take amazing photos, maybe you’re the new social media director. You love writing about and communicating the vision of the organization? You may also be great at applying for grants. Recognize what you can bring to the table and use it to support your team and its vision.

There is so many other tips, rules, and general guidelines on being the best “activist” possible. The most important part? Always remember why you’re doing it, who you want to help, and what’s at stake. The rest will come naturally.

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