Week 8 -  Social Movements

Words for this week:

Abolitionist

Suffrage

Suffragettes

secularization

"Civil Rights Movement"

"AIM"

"Gray Panthers"

 

Social Movements

Social movements have no doubt changed American politics throughout the course of American history. Clearly, the Abolitionists (who fought to abolish slavery) and the Suffragettes (those who sought the vote for women) are the two most important and dramatic examples of this.

The proliferation of so many "movements" may very well weaken the ability of any group to "cut through the clutter" of modern media.

Also, the fact that so many corporation now use some kind of viral or "guerrilla" tactics that it is hard to find a real "grassroots" (authentic, home grown) political cause or group. One senator called this kind of fake represe4ntation, where a corporation appears to be "the little guy" - he called it "astro turf politics."

 

And of course you know NIMBY:

 

It simply stands for "Not In My Back Yard." As in - sure I want to help the homeless by not with a home for them next to mine. Of course I want to help the poor but not in my back yard! NIMBY permeates US politics at all levels in all issues.

 

Face it - humans can be pretty selfish and exclusionary. We have groups who are over which has been more victimized throughout their history that other nations, groups or regions. We love to divide ourselves into groups so we feel part of something when the truth is we are all part of the greatest experiment in the history of our planet.

 

Also, about nine thousand of our ancestors left Africa about 100,000 years ago and we are, literarily, in the same family. Less than 9000 mitochondria DNA original lines exist among all 6.5 billion of us on this planet. That's less genetic diversity than most of the plants and animals on the endangered species list. So in that lame nineties rap song, when they say we are all in the same gang - they are more than a little correct.

 

The American Indian Movement

Social movements are often more important in the changes they bring to the participants than to the great polity.

 

The American Indian Movement, which coalesced around the same civil rights and equality of treatment that created the civil rights movement had a deeper and far more profound impact on Native Americans around the country than on the politics of the country as a whole.

If it were not for gambling and the money involved in that, Native Americans would still be ignored by the mainstream press and politicians not to mention the media and the public.

 

It was not AIM that changed things externally for many Indians around the country. But AIM solidified a three century effort to having a larger group identity, a national Indian identity" if you will, and that allowed some to successfully pursue gaming as a policy to increase the wealth and power of the tribe(s).

The so called Gray Panthers (older people who aggressively pursue protests etc to demonstrate the abuse and neglect of older people) are a great example of a small group of people who claim to be "left out" of the system, although older people, with AARP and other groups, may be arguably the most over represented group (after corporations)..