*Disclaimer: This post was written before
Invisible Children founder did
this.
A few weeks ago, a teacher, Hannah, started my yoga class by recounting something that had happened the night before. Her Smartrip card, a debit card-like pass for the metro and busses in D.C., had cracked, making it unusable. While carrying heavy bags, she got on the bus to discover that the paper metro passes don’t work on the bus, and she had no cash. She exited the bus and just as she was thinking about how she was going to travel the few miles home with all of her stuff and with no cash or ATM in sight, a woman pounded on the window of the bus and offered to pay Hannah’s fare. For some reason, the bus driver then decided to let Hannah ride for free, and when Hannah got to her stop, one of the people who started talking to her on the bus after that scene helped her carry her bags for a block.
I like stories about people who help each other.
Which is why, even after about 100 million views and counting, the Kony 2012 video fascinates me.
I’d be amazed if someone reading this didn’t know by now what the Kony 2012 video is, but just in case, it’s a call to action created by the NGO Invisible Children with the ultimate goal of putting pressure on the US Government to continue to work to stop Joseph Kony, the leader of the Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has destroyed lives in Uganda, Sudan, DRC, Central African Republic, and many more.
The video has received an enormous amount of critique, much of it I agree with, at least to a certain extent: it simplifies the story; it’s
flawed in accuracy; it
denies Africans a voice, and advances a colonialist narrative that Africans have no ability to make a change in their own country for themselves (their
board of directors is entirely made up of white men), even as leaders in a joint effort; Invisible Children is an organization with a
controversial record and they take more than their fair share of credit for President Obama’s recent deployment of military experts to Uganda, etc. I could go on and on.
But there is one piece of the story that I haven’t read that much about, and that is the piece of the video that, two weeks after watching it I can’t stop thinking about: their message that knowledge is power and awareness is the first step to action.
If you know me at all, you know that I had a somewhat unique childhood as a result of my involvement with the organization Free the Children (FTC). I was first introduced to FTC at age 12, and together with a teacher mentor and a group of friends, my friend Kelly in particular; we led our chapter to be one of the most successful in the network at that time. Our primary goal was to educate our peers and community about the reality that most of the world lives in and about the actions every day individuals can take to make an impact.
Like the rest of the video, this argument deserves critique, too. Simply knowing there is a problem isn’t enough for most people to take action. But this mentality, that awareness and knowledge is the first step to social change, can be extremely powerful. When I look at the cohort of peers I was a part of within FTC, I see that nearly all of us have become people who have dedicated our lives, at least professionally, to helping communities in need: We are teachers in urban schools, Americorps volunteers, and environmental activists. FTC taught us that not only do we have the power and the responsibility to work for change in our world, but that our actions count. While their organizational issues were child rights, as western children we could use the skills they taught us to advocate for change for anything we believed in, on a school-wide, city, state, national, or international level.
I do not believe that Invisible Children’s campaign of wearing a bracelet that says Kony 2012 will bring about a change, unless the bracelet serves as a physical reminder every day to its owner to take tangible actions, such as calling congress, centered on the importance of working with the International Criminal Court and international authorities to continue the effort to arrest Joseph Kony and rehabilitate the communities he has ravaged. The fact is, most people who will buy the bracelet will do it as a fad, and won’t pick up the phone. But if some of them do, then, perhaps, the campaign can call itself a success.
But what about the others, who are inspired by their new knowledge from the video, who then use that energy to learn more about something else? These actions cannot be measured, but the effect can be enormous. Someone who watched Kony 2012 may realize they have a voice and put it towards helping people in their own community, or another international issue, or they may realize that the world is flat, and try to learn a foreign language.
Which brings be back to Hannah’s bus ride. I like stories about people who help each other. The woman on the bus went out of her way to do something nice for someone she didn’t know. If Hannah hadn’t been able to take the bus that night, it wouldn’t have impacted that woman. But Hannah did, and that woman walked away knowing she had done something small for her that was huge for someone else. If you watched Kony 2012 or any other aid campaign this week and decided not to do something, your life won’t change that much. But if you decide to do something, small or big, your life might change for the better, forever.
Need ideas of stuff you can do? Let me know. I've got plenty.
We acted like nerds,
