Protests, Preaching, & Performative Politics

This was written by Claire, one of our summer interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

Recently, I’ve been really worried about the future of our nation. I’ve been traumatized by the lack of provisions for abortion in the case of rape or incest in Missouri’s House Bill 126; I’ve been horrified by this administration’s stance on asylum seekers and on immigration in general. But only recently have I been able to move past my fear and guilt that the people who look like me elected the people making these decisions.

I started my organizing “career” towards the end of the 2018-19 school year when I helped plan a rally that centered the idea that people with uteruses should have the right to abortions. In one week, with no in-person meetings, and with almost 300 young people in a group chat, we planned our rally. Over 1,000 people came which started with a short march and finished with a speaker session of 11 speakers that included prominent figures such as Cort VanOstran, former candidate for the House seat in Missouri’s Second Congressional District; Elad Gross, candidate for Attorney General in Missouri; State Senator and former candidate for the President of the Board of Alderman, Jamilah Nasheed; Pamela Merritt, co-founder and co-director of ReproAction; and Sarah Felts, Statewide Communications Manager for Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri. And this whole rally was put together through a group chat in GroupMe.

We definitely challenged some beliefs about young people. We were amazingly organized and the rally went off without a hitch, which people wouldn’t expect of a rally put on by 300 young people. We were thoughtful in a way people wouldn’t have expected of youth; we were intentional about including minority speakers and having a diverse slate of personal invitees. We brought inclusivity to the forefront, and our speakers talked about the issues that poor people, Black people, non-binary people, and trans people face when seeking reproductive health care. Afterwards, we got compliments from adults and fellow high schoolers alike. We even had a Refinery29 video made about three of the organizers, including myself.

However, there were some major flaws in our organizing. First, I’m not sure that we had clear cut goals for real impact. We got people thinking and talking, but the impact ended there. Secondly, we didn’t do a great job of helping the organizations that have been doing this work longer than us. We invited speakers from organizations like Gateway Women’s Access Fund, and Planned Parenthood, but didn’t do anything for their organizations. Our rally was great at organizing our base, turning out people who wouldn’t otherwise come to this type of thing, and giving new people a place to organize. But I think we should have done some one-on-one work, as a continuation of the work we started. We needed to talk to people afterwards. We needed to help Planned Parenthood and Gateway Women’s Access Fund by volunteering and helping to push liberal views of abortion. We needed to convince people who view abortion as a luxury that abortion should be free, on demand, with no questions asked. The work we were doing died with our rally. The movement has lost momentum. Our rally didn’t have a direct impact on the situation. 

This is not to say that protest doesn’t work. It does work. It’s been scientifically proven by Harvard scientists who studied the Tea Party protests back in 2009. But protests have a very different impact than some might think. They often fail to influence legislators, or the people on the “other side” of the issue. Instead, they activate people politically. They get people who would otherwise remain unengaged in politics to come out and show support for what they believe in, which may get them out to vote, canvass, or otherwise participate inside or outside of the political machine. So do protests matter? Yes. But do they change the way society operates or convince people to vote in favor of an issue? Not necessarily. The major problem is that most protests are performative politics.

Performative politics is organizing, or otherwise doing something, for attention. Our rally was a textbook case of performative liberalism: we got lots of attention, but didn’t help any of the most-impacted people. When people go on mission trips to disadvantaged African countries and post pictures, but fail to help disadvantaged people in their own region, this is performative politics. When people put on rallies, but fail to continue the work, nothing more is achieved than performative politics. Performative politics has an impact; it’s just minimal at best.

But this whole revelation would be wasted if I didn’t have some sort of recommendation, so here it is: we need to reform the way we organize.

If you’re going to have a rally, give organizations a place at the table, and to table. Give them the opportunity to recruit volunteers and share their platform. Promote events (or host ones!) that push people to believe what you believe. Don’t worry about getting people on your side; as an organizer this becomes too emotionally exhausting. Instead, focus on energizing your base and convince them to become politically active by engaging with people already doing the work. Have clear intent. Understand and determine what you hope to accomplish. Make sure you have a goal that centers the people you are trying to help and respects the people who were doing the work before you. Try and help those organizations and people.

As a youth organizer, there are some special recommendations I have that will make our organizing a little more inclusive and that will help us learn from some of the shortcomings of other movements. Remember that it is more than okay to ask for help, but don’t rely on other people to do the work for you. Recognize how your organizing upholds systems that you fight against. Most importantly, think, listen more than you speak, and be empathetic towards everyone. A majority of people who turn out to actions are more than willing to learn, so don’t shut them down, teach them! We don’t need to exclude any open-minded people for an “incorrect” opinion, meet them where they are and try to push their perception a little bit. We need to move away from performative politics, and also from excluding people who aren’t part of the inside clique. Our overarching goal as youth changemakers should be to move towards the embodiment of the ideals we preach and promote.