Photo credit: Mickey Z.
Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
July 14, 2014
(The following is an edited excerpt from Occupy this Book: Mickey Z. on Activism, which can be ordered here.)
“A woman in the Black Power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant,” explained former Black Panther, Elaine Brown. “A woman asserting herself was a pariah. If a black woman assumed a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race. She was an enemy of the black people.”
It damn sure couldn’t have been easy to stand up and expose rampant sexism, misogyny, and patriarchy within a high profile radical movement, but efforts like that are an important part of every struggle -- today more than ever.
This isn’t about demanding or expecting perfection or purity from yourself or anyone, but rather: It’s all about being unafraid to recognize and challenge inconsistencies, contradictions, denial, and hypocrisy.
Fundamental: If we want to live up to labels like activist, radical, or revolutionary, we must do our best -- every minute of every day -- to challenge and reject classism, sexism, racism, homophobia, patriarchy, ageism, ableism, transphobia, body shaming, heteronormativity, speciesism, and all other forms of hierarchical privilege.
Each of these struggles against oppression is a piece in the grand puzzle of collective liberation. The glue that holds all the pieces together is compassion…
Imagine if the majority of us woke tomorrow morning and suddenly recognized all forms of life -- including ourselves -- as part of one collective soul. If so, how could we not defend that collective soul... by any means necessary?
There’s my definition for activism: defending our collective soul by any means necessary.
The first step, as I see it, is recognizing that without the “glue” -- without limitless, audacious compassion -- effective activism is virtually impossible and life itself becomes an empty and meaningless exercise.
#shifthappens
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Mickey Z. is the author of 12 books, most recently Occupy this Book: Mickey Z. on Activism. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on a couple of obscure websites called Facebook and Twitter. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here.
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