Does Wearing Purple Make A Difference?
So, Spirit Day. I’ll be honest: originally, I was thinking, “Are you serious? People are wearing purple color-fy their avatars and this is somehow going to stop gay teens from killing themselves?”
Because wearing pink definitely has no causal relationship to curing cancer.
But I have to admit that there’s something inspiring about tracking the Twitter hashtag (#spiritday) and watching new tweets roll in every second from all corners of the world. It makes me hope that some kid who feels alone is tuning in at the same time. No, this won’t change public policy, and yes, a part of me thinks that most people won’t give this much more thought a week from now, but I couldn’t have imagined such a concerted effort like this happening when I was in high school, and that’s progress in itself.
I do think visibility and awareness are important for ally- and community-building, since it offers a lot of time-crunched people to show their support in a small way. (After all, I’m planning a very similar event centered around feminism, aren’t I?) Still, when I personally know so many people who make their activism their day-to-day work, it’s easy to be holier than thou about this stuff. I have to remind myself that being a professional radical is a privilege in itself and that not everyone has the luxury of choosing the same kind of life.
And hey, there have definitely been mornings when I woke up, pinned a rainbow ribbon to my tote bag, and called it a day. So really, I should stop being such a grinch.
