"Calling Out "Activist Tourism" and the "Progressive" Mainstream"

"At least one issue here is the definition of "activism." Like "organizer" and many others, this term can almost have no meaning. If [President] Obama was a "community organizer" what then what was Huey Newton? It seems that this moment lends itself to a kind of self-indulgent adventurism - or what Baltimore-based member of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle Dayvon Love has called something like "activist tourism."

I often feel the lines between activist, organizer and event planner are more than blurred; they are all but indistinguishable. Is activism getting arrested in pre-arranged spectacles? Is activism sustained organization building? Is one who advocates support for "lesser evils" in corporate/commercial elections an activist? Is one who writes essays or talks radical shit on his radio show an activist? Can an activist be pro-state? Or go to Starbucks?...

The only way I know to correct for the potential in all of us to engage in ego-tripping radicalism is to belong to organizations that have protocols set for membership, public speaking and behavior. A revolutionary checks and balances, of sorts. And since it is clear we are losing, it should be understood that we have many adjustments to make"

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32920-calling-out-activist-tourism-and-the-progressive-mainstream

I really appreciate reading these thoughts on the definition of activism.

Also on museums: 

"So first of course, all museums, art and culture are political. They do not exist in a vacuum. I've always thought that, in addition to the point you raise about the geopolitics involved in the Holocaust Memorial, that such a museum is acceptable to this state because it is often (not entirely accurately) disassociated from those crimes. "Those Germans did that." Plus, the US has reconstructed the history of that war positioning themselves as heroes (as opposed to, for instance, the Russians who truly defeated Hitler).

No true memorial to the Afrikan Maafa [the atrocities committed against African people through colonialism, slavery and ongoing racial oppression] could be erected here because its impact would demand immediate - even violent - revolutionary action."