Now is the time for protests and performance in both big and small ways. Now is the time sign petitions, make statements, participate in marches, virtue-signal, draft press releases in support of #BlackLivesMatter. I will take all of it, the shallow and the deeply felt, the instagram celebs and the poignant moments of truth. I do not differentiate. History will sort out truth from fiction. But right now, I think we should be encouraging people to act in any way they can because this is all apart of a grand public performance.
Most protest is performative activism. I love Tonya Pinkins's medium article titled "Why I'm Fed Up with Performative Activism" but some people have taken this idea as a cudgel to bash any metaphorical protests. You're tossing performative around like it's a negative thing. The most effective protests throughout history have been performative metaphors that are theatrical-ized by people. The Boston Tea Party was performative...a bunch of white dudes got dressed up like Native Americans and dumped tea into the harbor. Did the tea dump do vital damage to the British Empire? No. Were the protestors only upset about tea prices? No. Yet, the performance of that small act was a metaphor that galvanized other people. A small group of people perform a metaphor that sticks in the mind's of people...yes it IS like theatre.
-what you're really talking about is the difference between an effective performance and ineffective performance as protest. So what makes an effective performance? Well first off there is timing and attention...
-Remember National School Walkout? Students across the country participated in anti-gun violence. In some small towns there was no groundswell of support. But there was one student who walked out for an hour, or one student who stood on the street by themselves. What difference can one student make? Nothing. But it was performative gesture, it was the right time, and it got attention b/c someone took a picture of it. And the images of those individual students was as powerful and poignant as the thousands of people walking out together. Why? Because it struck a heroic note of -even if I am the last person- I'm going to do the right thing.
Ppl judge situations by 3 factors: 1) is the cause good or bad 2) is the protests active or passive 3) does it come across as strong or weak? Gandhi's 1930 Salt March was to protest British law forbidding Indians from making their own salt. He was going to take a long walk to the ocean and then make salt from the water. Salt is a pure and clean image in people's mind. It comes from the earth, it is a natural thing. The salt march takes something seemingly mundane and charges it with political and spiritual meaning. A walk becomes 1) virtuous 2) strong 3) active in opposing the British Crown. His adversaries look evil and foolish because they're stopping a kindly old man from taking a walk and making salt out of ocean water. MLK repeated this strategy in Selma. He took a walk across a bridge. Like Gandhi he had the perfect visual metaphor: an actual bridge both black and white people were going to cross. The performative metaphor and its context allowed the protestors to do the right thing, be strong, and be active by taking a walk, praying, walking some more. The evil of segregation would be highlighted by King walking across a bridge. Did he need to literally walk across that bridge to get somewhere? No. It's not like his house was on the other side. But did we -as a nation- need him to walk across that bridge so that WE could get somewhere? Absolutely.
-AIDS Quilt is performative, ACT UP's 'die-in's are performative and theatrical. Later on, #BLM repeated the same tactic by laying their bodies on the ground and pretending to be dead.
- Tiananmen Square tank guy is performative. We all know the tank could've crushed him or a soldier could have walked out and arrested him and dragged him away. The performance was a game of chicken: I dare you to show how brutal you are to your citizens in secret prisons...but in public.
-This is why theatre ppl love protests. Yes we are a vain and narcissistic bunch, but we're also looking for the metaphors in our lives that take mundane things and charge them with meaning.
- So what good does a performative statement do from a corporation during this crisis? It serves as a record. It is an apology and a promissory note. Generally most people think 'out of sight, out of mind' but that promise to do better doesn't die. Like the truth, it travels underground and builds and grows. Wickedness thrives in silence and off-the-record. That's why Black people are all about records. Our entrance into this country was as a matter of trade records. We keep lists and notes and details. Like Nina Simone's "Pirate Jenny" there is a day of reckoning. There is a time when the bill must be paid and we have all the receipts. So get your company, your theatre, your boss, your local org to make those #BLM statements. Get them on record because they're going to forget. But all that is forgotten is not lost. The bill must be paid.
-Virtue Police: The idea that there's some pure virtuous cause unblemished by human vanity and selfishness is bullshit. Every cause is tainted with 'me' because I bring me along to every action. There is a honeymoon period where you can attract idealists and get them to do a few good deeds. But every movement that lasts for the long haul has self-interests. The question is how do we take your self-interests, my self-interests, their self-interests...put it in a pot and melt it down to some thing that can be achieved.
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