January 21, 2019; Teen Vogue
In an article posted on TeenVogue.com, two professors talk about the terms “reform,” “resistance,” “rebellion,” and “revolution,” and how they might be in play—or even possible—in today’s world. The article itself is remarkable in the frankness with which it covers the need for these activist reactions to what is happening in our society and our world. Given the realities people are facing in our society, and the challenges many nonprofit organizations are trying to help them address, we can use this as a call to nonprofits about how the sector might think of sparking real change.
The two people interviewed are George Ciccariello-Maher and Keeanga-Yamhatta Taylor. Ciccariello-Maher is a writer, political organizer, and visiting scholar at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. “Hemi” was founded at New York University in 1998 and has the “fundamental belief that artistic practice and critical reflection can spark lasting cultural change.” Taylor is an African American Studies professor at Princeton University and the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation and How We Get Free.
Considered the least impactful of the four ideas is “reform,” which includes the very things nonprofits are increasingly encouraged to do: advocate for legislation and get your clients to vote. However, according to the definitions in the article, reform tries to work within the system as it exists to institute the changes desired but not to change the system itself. Ciccariello-Maher cites police wearing body cameras as a response to the riots in Baltimore and Ferguson as an example of the miniscule changes reform brings—ultimately, of little value. In this argument, encouraging clients to vote or become engaged in promoting legislation actually has them supporting the very system that perpetrates the inequity they face.
[For more on this story by ROB MEIKSINS, go to https://nonprofitquarterly.org...its-call-to-action/?]
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