ENGAGING IN ACTIVISM DURING THE PANDEMIC CAN BE DIFFICULT DUE TO HEALTH-RELATED BARRIERS AND STRESSORS. FOLLOW THESE TIPS TO FOSTER CONNECTION AND EMPOWERMENT DURING GENOCIDE AWARENESS MONTH AND BEYOND.
By Savanna Tess, TWR Fellow ‘20
April is Genocide Awareness Month–a period dedicated to atrocity education and prevention. In COVID times, connecting with others and even your own community is made more difficult because of physical and emotional barriers. Lacking access to necessary household items or a stable Internet connection has made the past few months more taxing than others, but engaging in social movements and activist networks can help widen your perspective and outlook on life no matter the size of the project. No matter how daunting Genocide Awareness Month and similar activist movements may seem during the pandemic, there are still ways to make an impact from a distance or online. Here are 5 tips on how to engage in activism right now safely.
1) Prioritize mental wellness
If you can, aim for a good night’s sleep, time outdoors, and maintain a good diet. Taking time to care for yourself and your well-being can provide long-lasting benefits for your happiness and ability to complete obligations. Self-care is necessary to engage in activism. To successfully advocate for others, you have to first advocate for your own wellness.
2) Be an upstander
Following health guidelines is the first and easiest step to uplifting your community. Wearing a mask and following distance restrictions can help alleviate anxiety about pandemic-related risks and free up mental space for activism. Practice being an upstander. Trying to include altruistic actions and an outward-looking mindset can honor Genocide Awareness Month in your daily actions beyond April. Small acts of kindness can look different depending on the person and the place. Supporting and connecting with others can entail a FaceTime call, a check-in with friends, or a positive post on social media–you can find content like this on our Instagram page, @tgthrweremember.
3) Learn from the past and present
The history of Genocide is unfortunately a long one. Attending virtual programs hosted by Together We Remember or your local Holocaust museum can help increase historical transparency, as well as increase your knowledge of different atrocities. You can also visit Genocide Watch’s website (http://www.genocidewatch.org) to learn about Dr. Gregory Stanton’s framework for examining genocide, the “10 Stages of Genocide”, and preventative steps you can take to stop genocide early. Further, learn more about the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a doctrine that informs genocide prevention today at (https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/about-responsibility-to-protect.shtml). It is also important to tune in to the news, read newsletters, and keep up with current events to stay informed about daily occurrences of identity-based violence and human rights infractions
4) Advocate for change on every scale
Check with your school or public library to discover what genocide resources are needed in its library to increase awareness, and fundraise if possible. It can be impactful to communicate gaps in library collections with the professionals who work there. Library professionals are often interested in serving the needs of their community to their best abilities. Making them aware of missing materials is one way you can make waves at a local level. On a national scale, you can write or call your member of the House of Representatives and Senate to ask them to support the passage of House Bill Resolution 154, the “Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution.” You can find your representative at http://whoismyrepresentative.com.
5) Empower others
Empowering other activists and uplifting their work is vital to sustaining the movement. Watching current politics can help identify marginalized groups that are being targeted and have inspired activist movements, such as #StopAsianHate and #BlackLivesMatter. The pandemic tends to exacerbate violence and exclusion, so being a strong force against those actions will go a long way in atrocity prevention and community wellness. Avoiding dangerous stereotypes and conspiracies that target minority groups is essential. In the context of COVID-19, it is important to advocate on behalf of the Asian community to contend that no social group is to blame for the pandemic. Scapegoating has a negative history in our world and instances of this type of rhetoric should be struck down upon. If you are a part of or close to a certain minority group, check in on them and offer your support as they may need it.
There are many ways outside of the ones listed to get involved in activism during COVID times. You can check out our Event Calendar for more virtual events on similar topics, as well as partake in the TWR Global Vigil on April 28th.
Savanna Tess is a Together We Remember Youth Action Network Fellow.
Banner Image Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54477523