At this week's Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, Madeline and Skyla spoke with…each other. Don’t get us wrong: we LOVE our guests but we also love our No Guest episodes when we dig in and speak in depth with one another about issues on our mind. And this week, political language and performative activism were very much on our minds. Tipped off by a paper Madeline recently wrote about the phrase “My Body My Choice” and how the meaning of that phrase has changed over the years, we talked about the language we use to describe our political ideologies, the importance of “sexy slogans” and power of social media to both provide and erode credibility in social movements, and how marketing and catchy slogans can skew narratives and chill discourse rather than enable people to evolve in their thinking. We talked in depth about the spectrum of activism, and whether and under what conditions performative activism can be a gateway to deeper, more authentic activism. Nobody decides to do activism because it’s easy; we agreed that the key to activism is the willingness and resilience that enables us to pick ourselves up and get back at it when we fail or fall short. We also agreed that the way to change is through “slow conversation” that illuminates the human experience, including that of people in the groups we may feel activated against. Hope you enjoy hearing our thoughts as much as we enjoyed hearing one another’s. Thank you for listening!
