Activism
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Activism
Change is inevitable and can only be achieved through a social struggle. Some people have been vocal in colonial efforts to bring change in different life areas, such as education, ethnicity, gender identity, culture, religion, and sexual orientation. In most cases, these people bring light to what happens behind these different areas of life. Activists create awareness of something that has been neglected in society. They defend and let people know the truth and also try to make other people respected. They use every platform to persuade people to change their behaviour and follow another set of guidelines that may bring change to society. Other times they make the government shift some laws, especially something to do with the community.
We live in a society whereby politicians try to control the way we live in the community. In most cases, they come up with sets of laws that try to control the nation to their benefits. Activists believe that change beginning with the people and not the leaders. Often they visit the people and influence them to try to change their character and live to what is right. Activists come to the public and represent a particular group of people who may feel ashamed of presenting themselves to the public. Some of these groups include the deaf, blind, albinos, and many others.
Listening to activists, I now see things neglected in society, like the education of deaf people. Nyle DiMarco, who is one of the significant activists of deaf people, emphasizes the importance of educating people with disabilities to make them become great adults in society. Highlighting some of the challenges he faced in his upbringing, he says that it is essential that other people with the same disability not to go through the same. He also points out that communication is critical in people’s lives, and thus it is essential to educate people for them to communicate with other people well.
Another activist that brought a difference in the way I think is Kelli Jean Drinkwater. With an obese body, she has gone through humiliation in society because of her body. Representing the people with a big body, she talks about what she goes through in the community. Kelli tries to make people accept “FAT” people in society because some cannot do anything to change the way they look. Kelli also explains how multimillion companies thrive because of the mentality people have towards big bodies. Listening to Kelli may make someone appreciate everyone the way they are because, at times, it may be difficult to change how someone looks like.
Activists try to show people that change begins with them and not the leaders. They make people understand that it is possible to bring change to society by how they think. Angela Davis highlights that people need to use their imaginations to think beyond the present. This kind of mentality will help people understand how they behave now, and it will reflect their future. The case of the use of plastics is one of the prominent examples of environmental pollution. In the past, people did not use plastic bottles but stored their water for long. Nowadays, plastics are everywhere globally, and they have polluted our rivers and all of our water bodies.
Through activism, we learn that it is vital to use our brains and change the world. The difference can be the mode of waste disposal or even avoiding the use of plastics. When we use the knowledge that we acquire through education and other ways, we can change the world. Talking a look at environmental pollution, the government can put measures that can help people manage their waste well, but people fail to obey the laws. When an activist starts educating the people about environmental pollution, it becomes something that people get to gain interest in following the rules. With facts in place, they make people get to know the effects of littering and change their behaviour.
In some instances, some people get to help other people come out of the ditch and also end up helping other people they might not have intended to help. Stacey Park Mibern and Andraea LaVant, defend the people with disability. Living with disability themselves, they set up an example to society on braveness to protect their people and help people fight stigma. Without looking at their present, they encourage people to have a better future and also a time focus on what is essential. In other scenarios, they help people to reduce the stigma on people who are born with a disability. Stacey and Andrea’s activism has also extended to the people of colour, these living on streets, and queer folks. Through their courageousness, people get to stop stigma towards people with a specific low status in society based on their beliefs.
Change may involve removing some stereotypes from the lives of people. At times it might not be easy to make people believe what you are telling them is his truth. Like the case of Nyle DiMarco, who is an activist for deaf people. He tries to show the importance of education to deaf people. Some people may think that it is impossible, but till they meet him showing the fruits of education, they cannot believe it to be true. When people get to know the truth about someone or a particular group, they become conscious and begin to live at peace with them, like the case of the black Americans whereby some people say that they evolve from monkeys. Thorough some Activism, people get to know why such behaviour is not necessary. It might take time to implement such ideas, but it is crucial to the lives of the people in the country.
Every person has their story as to why they support or they are against an individual’s motion or ideology, especially about society. Some people have been mishandled or misquoted by organization in their life. When they get knowledge on how to help others, they begin to be vocal and motivate people not to mistreat the same kind of people like they were mishandled. Kelli Jean, Stacey Park Mibern, Andrea LaVant, Nyle DiMarco, and Jully Black are among the people who do it out of passion and speaking it out of the experience. They stand in the gap of other people who are afraid of coming to light to be seen. Due to low self-esteem, other people who might have gone through the same scenario fail to air our struggles.
Listening to the various groups of activists, it is clear that whatever they bring to light is something that may affect an individual directly or indirectly. One of the unique ones was on the environment. Some activists try to raise concerns on the matters of the environment through the help of other stakeholders. They help people realize the importance of having a clean environment.