Blogs
We Day, Idle No More, and the ALS Ice Bucket challenge are events that bring awareness to issues present in our society. They do so through blogging, social media, and by hosting events. These three movements are all successful in bringing awareness to these issues, however their success in reinforcing or resisting power inequities is questionable.
“[We Day is ]an annual series of stadium-sized events, We Day brings together world-renowned speakers and performers… with tens of thousands of youth to kick-start a year of action through We Act” .We day is a youth empowerment movement in the United States and Canada. It seeks to inspire youth to change the world. However, We Day has some base problems at its core. We Day fundraises through corporate sponsors such as Blackberry and Microsoft. The fact that the event is being sponsored by these large multinational corporations reinforces power inequities. For example, Microsoft factories in China, operated most frequently by Foxconn. The suicide rates at these factories are sky high- and labour is cheap. This cheap labour is called outsourcing- and it reinforces the power inequity between China and the rest of the world. Through We Day these corporations receive free advertising and promotion, increasing their profit. We Day can therefore be said to support and reinforce power inequities, albeit inadvertently. Their promotion of large multinationals goes and their power inequities goes against their message of individual empowerment.To put on a We Day event is very expensive. Stadium rentals, food and lighting costs, and clean require the use of significant amounts of money. These We Day events are really not necessary. Teenagers should know that they're doing good, and don't need a dressed up party with celebrities to tell them so. Some of these speaker and celebrities shouldn't even be up on the stage. Take Avril Lavigne for example; she preformed at a We Day even, has a tattoo of the word “fuck” on her ribs. This is not a message that teenagers should be exposed to, and reinforces a power inequity. It shows the privileged life of stardom-where people are allowed to do things like this. These problems are still frequent as We Day continues its North American tour and should be remedied. Better options than WeDay are available. Individual private speakers, pizza parties, and field trips are all better ways to motivate students and should be used.
Idle No More has built up national and global awareness to the issues regarding Bill C-45. Aboriginal people and environmentalist have criticized the idea of removing the protections of forests and waterways due to the impact on the environment and aboriginal sacred ground. To express their beliefs in the importance of Aboriginal equality, the organization protested through several road blockades and flash mobs. This movement effectively resists the power inequities present in Canada among the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population. By bringing awareness to the insignificance of Aboriginal viewpoints in government decisions, other individuals feel sympathetic and are encouraged to support the need for Aboriginal perspectives in political agendas. The movement created large scale debates and eventually made the Prime Minister, Steven Harper, organize a meeting to settle these issues. Harper indicated willingness to consult the Aboriginals and environmentalists on the negative impacts of building the pipeline across Aboriginal sacred land; therefore the movement was somewhat successful in giving Aboriginals a voice in political discussions.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is known to be one of the human species’s most deadly conditions. With the purpose of bringing awareness to this issue and encourage donations to support research for a cure, a viral trend started in mid 2014 called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Individuals brought awareness to the disease through recording videos of themselves dumping a bucket of ice and cold water on themselves and challenging others to do the same. While doing this, they would also donate money for the research of this project.
Although this was effective in brining awareness to the term ALS, there were many setbacks to this trend. One issue was the fact that many of the individuals who participated did not know what ALS was. They just aimlessly participated in the trend for self-interest and popularity. As the trend continued, many of the participating individuals didn't donate any money either. The purpose changed from the helpless individuals suffering ALS and instead towards drawing attention to oneself through creating a unique and innovative vide. This reinforces power inequities because the ALS victims had received less attention than they should’ve compared to the growing popularity of individuals participating in the trend. This trend even shifted towards celebrity involvement. While this is an effective means of bringing awareness to the trend, it is also an excuse for celebrities to advertise themselves and increase their popularity. For instance, pop sensation Lady Gaga participated in the challenge. However, throughout the course of her entire video, she stayed silent, not mentioning ALS once or nominating others to support the cause. This simply implies that she did it as a publicity stunt for viral fame. Despite the well intended thoughts, the ice bucket challenge failed to effectively support its cause.
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2 Comment(s)
You raise some very interesting and valid points about how some of these global initiatives encourage power inequalities, but some of these, particularly the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, have actually been immensely successful. It doesn't really matter that SOME people didn't know what ALS was and did the ice bucket challenge for attention - the point is that MORE people (and significantly more, at that) understood what it was and donated. I'm not specifically familiar with Lady Gaga's case, but for the most part, the high-profile individuals who participated in the challenge may very well have an ulterior motive, but the vast majority of them donated a significant amount of money to support the cause. ALS was almost completely unknown to most people before the outbreak of the ice bucket challenge, but now, regardless of individual motives, is raising more awareness and funds than it has ever before. There will always be complications and impure motives that comes with an initiative as big as this, but it's also important to evaluate the efficacy of an initiative by the greater change it brings about.
Strong critical analysis! I like how you have raised a key issue related to the idea that well intended global citizenship initiatives can reinforce power inequalities: to what extent is an initiative focused on the individual feeling good and changing and/or on engaging with the systemic issues that need to change? The latter requires use to engage with the complexities of today including recognizing how many initiatives are tangled up in some of the systems (e.g. your point about corporate sponsorship) that produce some of the inequalities we are trying to change. How do we get young people inspired and involved while engaging with these wider systems? You seem to be a good example demonstrating that youth can engage critically.
Corinna
Feb 16, 2015