We
are in a shit storm. Okay, that’s one way to approach it. Another way is to
acknowledge the steadfast vessel upon which we ride the storm. The nails,
boards, paint, and rope are you, me, and past and present change agents. The
sails are made of what is possible, and the people who will continue to fight
for a better world. Think you are alone in this journey? Howard Zinn reminds us
to look around and we will find that there is an entire fleet taking on the
storm alongside us. The journey is long, and will likely never end. But that is
all the more reason to climb on board. We have places to go, people to see,
talk, listen, laugh, and cry with, and changes to work towards.
1. What
does it mean to be a social change agent, for you?
I am finding contradictions
between the beliefs I have posited in the past regarding what it means to enact
social change. One stance being that actions like recycling, buying local, and
organic are menial contributions that often serve as distractions within the
fight for social and environmental justice. The other argument I frequently
make is that most good intentions have a place and role for the realization of
justice. The latter harbors the former and both contribute to desired social
change when accompanied by mindfulness.
Being a social change agent
begins and consistently requires mindfulness. As we learn from this semester’s
readings about service learning and from personal experience, reflection is
part of this requirement. Aftandilian
and Dart write about the process students go through to become social change
agents. I find myself between the “emerging or caring stage” and the “developing
or social justice stage. In the emerging stage, “students start to see
injustice question past beliefs, and become compassionate based on their
critical thinking.”. The social justice stage finds “students commit[ting]
themselves to work as allies with oppressed groups to address the root causes
of social injustice and [to] make the system fairer for all” (58). Being a
social change agent requires interdisciplinary approaches to critical thinking and
subsequent mindfulness about one’s own relationship with the examined issues.
Mindfulness never leaves change agent practice. It is the basis of action. Conscientiously
acting means performing service for an ideal rather than service for an
individual person or thing (Mitchell, 52). Recognizing this difference opens
the potential for a wide array of actions to constitute social change while
keeping service focused on big picture issues.
2. What
is your understanding of your own agency in light of the structural hegemonies
that you otherwise reject?
Have I accepted that triumph will not be won in
a moment? No. This is because I am reframing my interpretation of triumph. I am
working on redefining what it means to realize triumph, and this is making a
difference in how I approach each day, task, and interaction. There are the
things I CAN do that make a difference. Goska writes, “moments, as if animate,
use the prepared to tilt empires” (64). This helps me find accomplishment in
things I would otherwise write-off as “not enough”. The “not enough” mentality gets people and
things into trouble. It adds additional stress to the mind and body when pushed
too hard as they try to achieve what is “enough”. It has resulted in the
degradation of the planet and society thanks to market growth models that lack
necessary boundaries. “Not enough” casts away confidence, agency, and
self-care, and distracts from the abundance we already possess and can offer.
These realizations are linked to Mitchell’s
description of social justice sensemaking, which is a process “driven by
plausibility.” Plausibility relies on confidence more so than accuracy and “respects
the fact that social justice cannot and does not have a singular definition”
(18). For those who have anything to contribute towards making the world a
little bit less shit-stormy, we are doing something in the moments we spend mindfully
loving, studying, dancing, painting, mentoring, calling our mom’s and senators,
and showing support for those in need when we can. “Inspiration is not garnered
from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness
to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, re-imagine, and reconsider,”
writes Hawken (56). If we focus on everything we cannot accomplish, then
certainly nothing will ever be “enough” and motivation to affect change will be
hard to come by.
3. What
have you done in your life already to be a “leader” or an agent of social
change?
As we learn from ENST
curriculum, language and narratives can be highly problematic as seen in the
systems of oppression they can create/perpetuate. As I work through the
“emerging or caring stage” of becoming a social change agent, I am becoming
more aware and sensitive to the power of language. I spend time reflecting on
how words and communication styles have an impact on me personally, and how they
might affect other individuals and broader communities. While the “emerging and
caring” stage will likely continue for much longer (or perhaps forever), I am
beginning to step into the social justice stage through some of the actions I
have taken this semester. Bringing HMS onto the HSU campus was an act of
commitment to social justice because I truly believe that the tools attendees
learned from that workshop can/will produce positive social impacts. Sharing
the workshop materials has direct implications for the minimization of
oppressive language. I want more people to recognize how powerful language is,
and acknowledge the role our interactions have in shaping the realities of
those around us. Bringing compassion, understanding, curiosity, and mindfulness
to the ways we communicate is enacting social justice because it simultaneously
acknowledges oppression executed through language, and works to minimize its
prevalence by consciously working to avoid making such contributions.
All-encompassing
triumph may not happen in a moment, but it never has. It is the conglomeration
of uncountable moments that move us forward. It’s not always straight, but it
is forward. We have hit a very curvy part of the road…the kind of road that
confuses the GPS so it keeps telling you to make a U-turn whenever possible.
Keep driving forward. This trope is not synonymous with that of traditional
progress and growth narratives. Those models have gotten the world into a
serious pickle. These terms have different meanings, as seen through the
actions, imaginations, and theories of the multitudes of people who are
changing the narrative every day. On this treacherous route, in this
shitty-mc-shit-storm, “humanity is coalescing” (Hawken, 55), and in even the tiniest
representations and reminders of that, I find motivation.
Works Cited
Aftandilian,
Dave, and Lyn Dart. “Using Garden-‐‐Based
Service-‐‐Learning to Work Toward
Food Justice,
Better Educate Students, and Strengthen Campus-‐‐Community
Ties.” Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 6:1. P. 55-‐‐69.
Goska,
Danusha Veronica, “Political Paralysis.” The Impossible Will Take a
Little While:
Perseverance
and Hope in Troubled Times. Edited by Paul Rogat Loeb. New York: Basic Books,
2014.
Hawken,
Paul. “You Are Brilliant and the Earth is Hiring.” The Impossible Will
Take a Little
While: Perseverance
and Hope in Troubled Times. Edited by Paul Rogat Loeb. New York: Basic Books, 2014.
Mitchell,
Tania. “How Service-‐‐Learning
Enacts Social Justice Sensemaking.” Journal of
Critical Thought 2:2 (Winter 2013-‐‐14).
Mitchell,
Tania D. “Traditional vs. Critical Service-Learning: Engaging the Literature to
Differentiate Two
Models” Equity & Excellence in Education, vol. 40, no. 2, June 2007, pp.
101-112. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10665680701228797.
Zinn,
Howard. “The Optimism of Uncertainty.” The Impossible Will Take a Little
While:Perseverance
and Hope in Troubled Times. Edited by Paul Rogat Loeb. New York: Basic
Books, 2014.
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