Bright Spots: Advocacy
written on 25 September 2020 by Indy Hollway & Erin Iwata
Art by Brandon Heim
Our Church Too is all about sharing stories and advocating for each other. However, advocating can be really difficult, and it’s important to be in the know. This week we have shared two stories about ways that we can advocate for issues we might not be attuned to. So, to support you on this journey, here is a collection of Instagram posts that we found particularly useful when coming to grips with healthy advocacy and educating ourselves. We hope that you find that these posts challenge and shape you, as they challenged and shaped us.
This piece by @i_weigh describes what intersectionality is and why it’s important. Without an intersectional mindset, good advocacy is impossible because without it, certain areas of oppression are prioritised over others, and the experiences of those who are at the intersection of multiple areas of oppression are left out.
This piece by @blairimani demonstrates the importance of being thoughtful and intentional with our language. The words that we use, and the contexts we use them in, are super powerful and can trigger and hurt people. It is therefore crucial that we think about what we say before we say it, especially when we are advocating for people whose experiences are outside our own.
This post by @stillgrowing on toxic positivity is especially crucial in a church context. Although we know that we have been given the greatest gift, and that God’s grace is something to be celebrated, this doesn’t mean we should discount the negative. Whilst the gospel is wonderful news, Jesus was not blind to the suffering around him, and neither can we be.
@i_weigh made a super useful graphic to help us become more aware of where we are on the journey to anti-racism. The post explains the difference between reactive and proactive allyship and provides some really useful tips on how to move to the next stage of our journey.
This graphic by @intimately.co outlines what ableism is, and how people often express this through microaggressions such as assuming that disability means inability and belittling disabled persons. The images help us to check our own behaviour and know what to look out for in others.
@sophjbutler outlines the important problem of a lack of representation in media for disabled persons. She explains how disabled people rarely feature in movies or tv shows, and when they do the roles are often written and played by non-disabled persons, with the disability being the entire focus of the role. She argues that we need better and more accurate representation, and that this would help us have a more healthy understanding of disability. This post helps us to look at movie and tv representation critically and to check those assumptions that this media causes us to have.
