We are only halfway through the year 2016, but so much has happened over the past few months. I think I can speak for other members of my generation when I say that there is so much happening right now in the world. So much of the world is changing; some of it is for the better and some of it is for the worse. Sometimes it feels like it all came out of nowhere, but that's not what has changed. What has changed is that people are paying attention and deciding to no longer be bystanders that contribute to the chaos.
Barbara Alice Mann once said,
“Westerners are fond of the saying ‘Life isn’t fair.’ Then, they end in snide triumphant: ‘So get used to it!’
What a cruel, sadistic notion to revel in! What a terrible, patriarchal response to a child’s budding sense of ethics. Announce to an Iroquois, ‘Life isn’t fair,’ and her response will be: ‘Then make it fair!’"
With the help of the massive conglomerate that is social media, it has become a lot easier to form an opinion about what's going on in the world. The harder part is being willing to say something about it for the fear of being wrong. On that note, here is a list of tips I've acquired for navigating the tempestuous world of social justice issues. It's okay to be scared. That's how I get things done.
1. Contradiction does not mean persecution.
There have been a few times when I shared something on Facebook that may have not been entirely correct and the sight of notifications of a comment on that post gave me a minor heart attack because I'm afraid of confrontation. However, the people that corrected me were gracious enough to point it out politely instead of raining down an unholy barrage of 160 characters or less.
The important things I've learned from these encounters is to not immediately attack someone for responding to my opinion. After all, an opinion is not a fact. Instead, I took it as an opportunity to learn. In my experience, the more harsh and ad hominem a person gets doesn't make them any more right.
2. Sit down, and for the love of whoever you believe in or don't, shut up.
An important example of this is the controversy surrounding "Black Lives Matter" vs. "All Lives Matter." While both sides do have important points to make, it is a matter of when they are being discussed. As the movement "All Lives Didn't Matter Until..." explains, the movement "All Lives Matter" is an act of erasing a very real and increasingly problematic situation that a specific community is being affected by. Bringing up one issue while another needs the attention displays a disrespectful attitude that implies you care about maintaining a status quo rather being a bringer of much needed change.
3. It's not about being the loudest and proudest / Stick a band-aid on your bleeding heart.
A social justice warrior (the kind that makes people grit their teeth) is a person who acts as a crusader and imagines themselves as the one being persecuted. Their sworn enemy is anyone that disagrees with them. They are usually characterized by attacking their enemies from behind a keyboard and convincing an entire community to threaten the lives of their enemies. Don't be that guy; eat a Snickers. But in all seriousness, violence begets violence. There's been enough bloodshed. I'm tired of hearing about shootings and having to ask, "Which one?"
4. True justice isn't black and white.
To stand for something does not automatically mean that you are against something else. Pro-black isn't anti-white. Feminism isn't about destroying men. Pro-choice isn't about killing babies. This just in: the world isn't in black and white; it's a whole lot of messy gray.
5. Don't forget about the good in the world.
There is a plethora of events in the world that are heart-wrenching in the good kind of way. For example, there is the way that Pokemon Go has taken the world by storm. Personally, I don't play Pokemon Go, but I appreciate the sense of nostalgic inner-child it is reviving. In a strange but not entirely unwelcome way, it's bringing people out of their shells and out in the world to "catch em all." It is giving people something to be happy out again and there's nothing wrong with that.
