Evaluating Your Activism

A few days ago, a friend in Texas reached out to me to ask how she was supposed to tell the difference between performative activism and “real” activism, and if performative activism was all that bad if it still contributed to awareness.

A primary guideline of my personal practice (as an activist, and also as a human) is to begin any learning process by investigating the words I’m using, and the assumptions that I’m making by using those words. I wrote about this strategy back in October, but to briefly recap: examining the precise definitions of words we are using in conversation will often flush out disagreements before they have fully taken root. Asking yourself to sit down and articulate the specifics of the words you choose encourages accountability within your own thought process, and also aids in understanding where your perspective might differ from others.

Now - if we take this framework and apply it to my friend’s question, I think we actually begin to poke at something that’s been a point of contention in activist spaces over the past several months.

Performative action refers to words, labels, and appearances that signal surface level intent, but do not lead to any action or disrupt the norm of the actor in any way. Think pink capitalism or Facebook profile filters - nothing has fundamentally changed in the way that they operate, they just put a lens over their normal and called it activism. That is what it means to be performative. If we were to place this concept on a spectrum, the opposite end would be tangible action.

Nonstrategic action, on the other hand, refers to an action that does not effectively move towards the intended goal. Think blocking all your racist family members on Facebook - if the intent was to create transformative change, those actions were ineffective. To call something nonstrategic is not to make a value judgment about the intent, but rather to evaluate its effectiveness. If we were to place this concept on a spectrum, the opposite end would be strategic action.

These distinctions are important because of their propensity for creating divides within activist spaces and communities. If you call something performative when it’s actually nonstrategic, what you’ve done is accuse the person/organization of not acting at all, or perhaps acting with malicious intent. This will almost universally lead to a defensive or aggressive response, which doesn’t lend itself to effective conversation, relationship building, or behavioral progress. Being precise about what we’re discussing encourages individual accountability, and also lends itself to effective conversation and cohesive relationship building.

It’s also important to note that symbolic action is a separate thing. Symbolic action is a category of action that has the potential to be anywhere in the range of performative/tangible or nonstrategic/strategic. Another category of action would be structural action, which can also lie anywhere on those spectrums of evaluation. A line of black queer people at a march walking towards a line of heavily armed riot cops is a symbolic action that is both tangible and strategic, sending a clear message of resistance and unity to combat the common media narrative of “violent rioters.” Donating money to the large charity organization for the sake of mutual aid is a structural action that is tangible and nonstrategic, as your money is going to corporate payroll, not folks in need.

In summary:

Symbolic action: refers to a category of action that uses symbolism to enact change.

Structural action: refers to a category of action that uses structural shifts to enact change.

Performative action: refers to an action that signals intent via words, labels, or appearances, but does not enact change or affect the status quo. Exists in opposition to tangible action.

Tangible action: refers to an action that enacts change or otherwise influences the status quo. Exists in opposition to performative action.

Strategic action: refers to an action that effectively moves toward/accomplishes the goal or intent. Exists in opposition to nonstrategic action.

Nonstrategic action: refers to an action that does not effectively move towards the goal or intent. Exists in opposition to strategic action.

Performative versus tangible and strategic versus nonstrategic are spectral terms that we can use for the evaluation of any given action or type of action. As with most things, this spectrum of evaluation is contextual, and requires us to be honest about the present moment in order to have an accurate framework.

If this essay has you reeling, and wondering how you can be strategic in your own activism, I encourage you to start at the Social Change Ecosystem Map. The map is an interactive framework built by Deepa Iyer, and it is a great tool for understanding how to make the best out of your own personal skill set. Once you understand your capacity, it will become that much easier to understand and evaluate how to move through activist spaces as your best and most strategic self.