Resist with Precision

Let's buckle down, team.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming this week to talk about a different kind of love. Today, we need to talk about love for the community, love for our fellow human beings, and how to channel that love (and the outrage you may be feeling right now into meaningful, supportive help that doesn’t get you killed.

First of all, here’s the lens I’m coming from, for those of you who don’t know me personally.

I’m a 38-year-old disabled white woman, quick to anger and with chronic pain. I’m sure you can already see why that’s relevant; there are some avenues of protest that aren’t right for me, and others that are not mine to hijack.

There’s something I want to be super clear on, here; it is my strong opinion that it is no longer time for Faramir of Gondor to show his quality. We’re no longer anywhere near the realm where being really loud, angry, and aggressive for the sake of showing off how angry and powerful we are is even remotely helpful. Yes, spreading awareness is key, and yes, making sure people know where you stand is often very important, but quite frankly, I’d think really, really hard before getting on a plane to go out and march in the streets of Minneapolis right now. Is that really the best use of your rage? Will that be helpful? Will that create safety or change for someone, or will that just show your social media followers that you Care?

Will it get you or someone else hurt or killed?

Oh, I’m sure that some of you are ABSOLUTELY the right person to be marching in the streets and showing up on the front lines, and if that’s you, HELL yeah.

But it’s not all of us. It isn’t me. My body wouldn’t stand up to that, unfortunately. I’ve got to find another way.

I originally thought about making this post fun and relatable by breaking down some potential activist lanes and sorting them into different RPG classes, but I’m just not feeling the fun vibes today, in light of everything, so I apologize for not being able to do that.

Instead, I’m just gonna break things down very simply and provide some examples. I’ve been reading everything I can find, talking to some other activists in different situations, and trying to create a picture for myself of What to Do Next.

Here are a few things that I’ve figured out so far.

If you have legal expertise, offering your services to people or organizations who support and promote legal services for ICE victims and immigrants is a GREAT place to start. You don’t have to be an immigration lawyer, or a criminal defense lawyer; there are apparently LOTS of different ways that legal expertise can help, so if you’re on the law track, maybe get in there and see what you can do.

I have absolutely no legal expertise, so that lane isn’t for me. I know several people who are already in that lane and working hard!

If you are a good writer, good with words, good at creating convincing arguments, or even just good at angry rhetoric, write to your legal representatives. Make the language you use available to others who may be less confident in their writing or typing skills, so that they too can write to their legal representatives. It’s amazing how many people hold off on writing to their reps purely because they don’t know what to say or how to say it. If you DO know what to say and how to say it, you can genuinely help with this!

I am actively doing this as we speak. This one IS a good lane for me!

If you are very well-versed in what’s going on right now, if you have a lot of excellent resources to educate yourself and if you understand politics and the various political and social ramifications of the situations we’re facing, please educate the people close to you. We live in an age where it is VERY difficult to know if our sources are reliable, and misinformation is rampant. I have a very close friend who has several roles in the revolution; one of those roles is to help the rest of us understand the nuances of what we’re facing, how we’re facing it, and how the steps we’re taking might or might not affect that situation. I cannot tell you how incredibly helpful that friend has been to me over the last few years.

I’m doing my best. I’m afraid political history and polisci haven’t been the primary focuses of my 38 years of education, but I’m moving forward the best I can and educating where and when I can.

NB: Fighting with MAGAts on the internet does not count as “educating your circle,” I think. I know how incredibly tempting it is. I know that in some cases it’s necessary in order to protect people, but the grand majority of the time, getting into online fights with bigoted strangers is a waste of your resources.

If you have finances to spare, you can donate to organizations that have the required expertise to fight the battles you can’t fight yourself. Consider donating to legal organizations that protect ICE victims and immigrants. Can’t be on the front lines? Donate to organizations that are providing food and resources to the front line in-person protesters. If you’ve got money, that money can go a long way towards making a difference.

If you don’t have money, but you have art, consider using that art to make money, and then using that money to fund the cause (see the paragraph above). For example, I’ve seen lots of writers doing special sales on limited edition copies or signed copies of their books, and promising to donate all the proceeds of those sales to various helpful organizations.

The hideous, hateful truth is that, at this point, simply making protest art is not enough. Oh, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t make the art. Make the beautiful damn protest art; lord knows I will. Exercise the parts of yourself that need to create to cope with the horror and the rage; you need it, and frankly, the world needs to see your art, to feel your rage, and to embrace it; to let it resonate with them. That’s important. But making protest art in and of itself will not sufficiently fuel the revolution.

I have no money, but I do have some art, so I’m doing the best I can in this lane, with understandably meager but not meaningless results. I’ve chosen a specific organization to target with my financial efforts; I’d prefer not to say more about that right here.

There are, of course, many other ways to contribute. I have a partner who is focusing their efforts on offering self-defense lessons to people who might, horribly, really need to protect themselves in the times to come. I’m sure you can come up with several more ways to be a helper.

But, as I saw recently posted on one of my social media walls, they are currently killing the helpers. I mean, they’ve BEEN killing people for years; ICE and white supremacists murdering people of color in cold blood is NOT a new thing. We’re noticing now because they’re also killing the white people, and because they’re killing specifically the white people who are stepping in and trying to Help; now, white people are finally taking notice of murders that have been happening for ages.

BE CAREFUL. Be cautious. Be precise. Pay attention to your capacity, and to the consequences of your actions, not only to you but to the people around you. If a grand gesture could put you OR SOMEONE ELSE in serious physical danger, then it is NOT THE TIME FOR A GRAND GESTURE, no matter how good it might make you feel about yourself.

I say this not only for you, but for me, as well. Lord knows I love a good grand gesture, and I love the idea that I could be not only a helper, but a savior, BUT, as I said at the beginning, it’s not time to show off and be a lauded hero.

It’s time to buckle down, zero in, and quietly get the work done.

Fuck ICE. Fuck white supremacy.