Social Change Agent Manifesto by Francesca Watts

            Every living being on this planet is a social change agent in one way or another. Every word I speak, every person I encounter, and every action I take makes an impact on at least one thing—we’re all connected, eh? I am a social change agent through my influence on others when they find out why, for environmental, social justice, and ethical reasons, I don’t eat or use any being who has a mother. I am a social change agent by living zero waste even if that action does not clean up all plastic pollution. I am an agent of change as the vehicle I use to glide around this world is a white able-bodied American—where I am in an ever-evolving state of unearthing and deconstructing personal power, privileges, and identities (i.e. white, American, vegan, environmentalist, zero waste) to create waves. Lastly, I am a social change agent by way of being a leader in laborious trail maintenance work as a female-identified body in a predominantly male workplace.

            To me this means I am activated with a duty to use my influence in an impressionable way, wherein every being I have an interaction with (direct or indirect), walks away with a hope for something in this world no matter how minuscule. Now being a social change agent does not mean, to me, that I have to be a well-known entrepreneurial activist who quite literally builds villages, diminishes poverty, nor solves the water crisis with a magic wand. Rather, what makes a difference are fractal changes- planting seeds- even if I never see them sprout. Howard Zinn made a point to such ripples of change in stating that, “small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” Spreading compassion and conscious efforts to not cause harm to others is infectious and inspires others to look inward at their actions.

            The Environmental Studies lens has molded itself into my vision of social change in ways I never thought would exist. Before entering this major my idea of environmentalism admittedly included ideas of overpopulation, conservation, "wildness", and humans as disrupters in the “natural” world. See now I can't help but put quotations around the words "natural" and "wildness" ;-). My privileges and power as a social change agent checked these visions of environmentalism. I now recognize the inherent necessity of interweaving human culture and justice into my vision for a less polluted world. To be clear, I define ‘polluted’ in this context as pollution by not just extraction of earth materials, but also the pollution of greed, capitalism, and oppression.

The “ENST lens” formulated my vision for social change into an interdisciplinary approach that for example looks like this: taking power out of the hands of corporate Confined Animal Feeding Operation hog farms in North Carolina and distributing that power into the hands of the residents living next door (who are mostly people of color) who are experiencing bodily infections and asthma, and who can’t leave their house when pig feces and urine are continuously sprayed into the fields, waterways, and air because farmers don’t know what to do with all excrement from the thousands of confined hogs raised solely for bacon and pork chops.  

OK, now that I’ve descended from the soapbox, to sum up, before ENST I would not have thought to research how hog farms are effecting nearby human residents, I would be focused on the animal welfare, water and land pollution. Now, I do not see how any human or animal activists could not be concerned to speak up for all living beings--including humans. Yes, that may mean getting my feet wet in the political sphere, but that is a risk I am willing to take for all people, land, air, water, hogs, piglets, cows, chickens, foxes, fishes, tardigrades (if you're reading this and you know what a tardigrade is--you rock. If not, Google it!), and so on. 
I believe that activism starts as a whisper in our souls, a voice way down deep inside, that presents itself as an unmistakable knowing that nudges us to look our consciousness dead in the eye and ask ourselves the tough questions such as : Can I sleep at night knowing what I know now? Is this moral? Am I living my truth?

Deconstructing the World and Our Emotions

The ebbs and flows of pessimism and optimism that I have experienced throughout the Environmental Studies program have been educational and enlightening. The invaluable and often times troublesome content with which we engage has shed light on many of aspects of society that require environmentally just reconstruction. We have engaged this content through an array of critical lenses, methodically deconstructing the politics, powers, privileges, ethics and motivations that have shaped many of todays calamities. But aside from learning the skills and methods of engaging in deconstructing, I've learned a very powerful lesson about myself. This learning experience has shed light on my individual politics, powers, privileges, ethics, and motivations, all of which have empowered me to use my strengths to begin contributing to environmentally just reconstruction.
Looking passed the pain and hurt in the world can be a difficult to achieve. Furthermore, cultivating motivation to act and knowing appropriate ways to act add an additional and often times daunting burden, one that can drag down many students who struggle the common, yet conflicting emotional responses of passion and apathy. Where do these feelings come from? They're deep, personal, and difficult to identify. I believe for this task, we must think critically about ourselves and deconstruct our emotions to find the source of our passionate anger towards injustice. Throughout the progression of the "affective arc" of the Environmental Studies program, I identified which calamities overwhelmed me the most. Based on the critical engagement with the course content, coupled with my critical engagement with myself and an embracement of my emotional response, I have found a path through which I hope to create positive change. My path is foggy, dynamic, and full of obstacles, but it is a path none the less.

The Emotional Rollercoaster of Environmental Revelations

Life, undoubtedly for all of us humans, is inherently emotional. The degree at which we foster, express, or actively apply those emotions to the constant unfolding of events around us is what varies. Some people are raised in what I would call emotionally repressed households, where there is certainly love for one another, but vulnerability isn’t expressed, and deep emotional connections are not the basis of conversations or bonds among family members. Others are raised in homes where the freedom to express emotions, creativity, and vulnerability is highly encouraged and forms the foundation of family values. Now, there are also a plethora of other family relationships, household types, and core family values, and many families cultivate an environment that is emotionally suppressing at times and then encouraging at others. Family and emotional dynamics are no static thing. My point is this; our relationships to our parents, siblings if we have any, extended family, and the community at large are what define the scope of our affective palpability as individuals. The emotional environments we are raised in a visit the most frequently define our sensitivity and expression as affective communicators.

 

The beautiful and loving women in my family. From the left, my mom, sister Caitlin, cousin Callie, my wife Chelsea, and cousin Rory.

               For me, I was raised in an emotionally encouraging household. We spoke of our feelings, our pain, and our excitements about life. It created a deep bond between myself, my parents, and my siblings. Even with this solid background of support, confronting the crisis at hand regarding the worlds current ecological state, the many looming social, race, and gender inequalities, and realizing my privileged position within this whole mess was emotionally challenging to say the least. Our professor Sarah Ray wrote about the progression of emotions her students experience in the ES curriculum and how acknowledging and addressing these emotions are important to her teaching style yet should be handled with care. She asks a question that I feel accurately summarizes this dilemma, “How can attending to the affective experiences of students in ES curricula do triple-duty: cultivating resilience in our students, protecting faculty from burnout, and contributing to planetary salvation?” (Ray, 2). I believe her and those studying this issue do an excellent job at attempting to answer these question, and although I most certainly cannot answer them myself, the discussion is one I believe we can all contribute to.

A good friend helps with the emotional rollercoaster. Nich Graham hitch-hiking near Lake Tahoe, CA.

               Since we are all inherently emotional beings, then we must all have some form of emotional knowledge and understanding. These questions do not merely address the challenges of ES students and faculty, but like the last question of the sentence highlighted, involve the entire planet. Every human on this planet already has or soon will undergo an emotional journey related to the current situation of our world, both ecologically, and culturally. These emotional revelations come at a cost, they have the potential to hinder our capacity to feel and to use those feelings for good. Luckily, since we all have varying degrees of emotional comprehension and communication, finding solutions to address the affective arc of ES students can involve everyone, in and outside of the classroom. Our families, our friends, even our enemies can help us grow as emotional beings and contribute to us healthily processing the feelings we encounter when faced with a, to say it bluntly, fucked up world. For me, getting to know the land around Humboldt State University, and especially the people, was essential to my ability to process the emotions related this the ES curriculum. I become aware of the indigenous presence almost instantly upon my arrival to this area two years ago, and through a few Native American Studies classes and my good friend Matthew Marshall, a Hupa native, I was welcomed into their world. Seeing their strength, resilience, and survival against the odds is enough emotional energy to empower anyone that can feel.

Matthew Marshall as a boy with his family fishing hole in the background. Hoopa, CA.

               Another effective way to utilize these powerful emotions to “contribute to planetary salvation” as Ray put it, is to engage ourselves in the communities around us, applying our critical lens for the empowerment and betterment of those around us. Danielle Davis Joy in her article on Critical Service Learning states that, “While prepping educational leadership students for required testing is crucial, preparing for subsequent practice so adult learners develop the ability to critique and respond to the complexity of community and stakeholder needs must not be overlooked” (Joy, 12). This statement encourages imbedded training within curriculum like ES that trains for and is reactive to the response of real world issues. What a better way to create emotional support for students struggling through the affective arc then to prepare them to face challenges, emotions, and the complexity of issues outside of the classroom, head-on. Its like playing chicken with your doubts, insecurities, and fears. If you look away or decide to turn out last second, you never learn to understand or defeat the obstacles.

 

              

Regaining agency

Starting from the beginning of my journey in college to this point where I’m about to graduate, I have experienced many states of "agency" revolving around social and environmental justice. I first felt wide eyed and bushy tailed about my hopes of being able to make true change in the world around me. I had hope. Now fast-forwarding to today, much of that hope is lacking and it is creating a barrier between the work I'm doing and the work I should be doing. I have lost a lot of the courage and drive to think outside the box and fight unapologetically regardless of the opponent. I'm hoping to regain some agency back through the work that I do in this class. I believe that if I prove to myself that the work I’m doing really is making a difference, than it will catapult me back into action.

So the question here is: What impact do I hope to have throughout this experience?

Before answering this question, I must give a little background as to why I chose my project in the first place. My capstone project includes working with middle school kids in an after school program. I chose this program because I went through most of my life never being exposed to a lot of truths about the world that I wish I knew earlier in life, and I’m hoping to empower kids so that they don’t have to wait as long as I did. I have never worked with kids and have never been fully exposed to kids in my adult years, so needless to say, this will be challenging. But I have already gained a broader appreciation for them and their sense of self in the world as it is today growing up in the unique culture that is Humboldt County. The impact that I hope to make is simply to inspire them to love life, love the world around them, and most importantly, critically think about what their place in the world is and what it can be. I would like to empower them to never take life for what it is but to always fight for what they want. This may be difficult is such a short amount of time and with no experience in doing this work, but I’m just taking it one step at a time.