Revolutionary, Subversive, or Performative?
I’ve been thinking a lot about a comment Bruce Ware made on Bad Faith podcast last month, about Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl half-time performance: the performance itself was subversive, while the dancer who broke ranks to run around the field with a Sudanese & Palestinian flag was revolutionary.
This is brought to mind that gawdawful moment from the 2020 racial reckoning where congresspeople draped in kente cloth took a knee at the capitol. It's hard to look at. They were definitely trying to ally themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement, but I think their gesture was more performative than aligning. And harmful, too, given the way it leveraged their power, positionality, and platform with hollow gestures and appropriated regalia.
These terms began organizing themselves in my mind, each as actions taken toward collective well-being, liberation from oppressive systems, and all entities of all kinds mutually treated with dignity:
Revolutionary: Something most of us could not have imagined, that busts out of the system as we know it
Subversive: Actions that undermine the system, spotlight alternatives, disrupt how the system is supposed to work
Aligning/Allying: Signaling and signifying agreement, recognition, and compatible intent
Performative: Widely approved and generally unsubstantial forms of protest that function like unfulfilled promises
Neutral: Something completely within the current system that neither contributes nor detracts—I’m not actually sure this is possible
These definitions are, as you’ve probably guessed, still wet and soft. Yet as they solidify in meaning and significance in my mind, an image of their relationship appeared. It’s a continuum, from less effective to more effective, heading leftward (always 😉) toward that goal. Here’s a serviceable rendition:
Before I could get around to settling the definitions of these action categories, I was already jumping ahead into what many of you know is my constant practice: seeing how I fit in here. So I started thinking about what all I do that brings to life my commitment to liberation. I’d list an action, then place under the relevant category on the continuum. Right away it became clear that actions can live in many categories at once, and can move between categories over time. Here are a few things I found interesting:
Performative actions are very often the well-intentioned but under-informed or not-well-thought-out ones. Remember that time I offered a free Thanksgiving turkey to a Black family across the street? They were (rightfully) offended. My intention was to befriend, share, build community (and be seen as friendly and safe): it was all about me, and that makes it performative, and not safe. Seems I need to add red ‘harm’ shape off to the right side of the continuum.
Sometimes when I’m marching at a rally, or signing an electronic letter to my congresspeople, or wearing my FREE PALESTINE pin, I can feel like I’m just doing something because it’s the right thing to do—which leans toward performative. But if I pause to check that I’m following-up, following-through, and staying true to what I’m signalling, then these actions feel aligning or allying.
The fabulous Loretta J. Ross has said (I’m paraphrasing), “Those BLM yard signs may seem performative, but hell, I like knowing which house I’d go to if my car broke down, so put those signs up!”.
My financial contributions to a family in Gaza and a local restorative justice organization would be performative if giving that money shielded me from feeling bad about what’s happening in Gaza or our carceral system, or if it convinced me I could then ignore these issues, having done my part. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
It feels subversive when I boycott Amazon, Chevron, and AirBnB, when I choose small/independent/BIPOC-owned rather than corporate, because when these actions are done as mass movements, they undermine the economic status quo.
Similarly, last weekend when instead of playing in the snow I spent the afternoon with the local BIPOC-run mutual aid group Black Star Farmers at their urban garden, I was doing something subversive. It’s taken me a while to come around to understanding this: small local groups, taking care of each other, without relying on institutions both undermines the systems that wants us to rely on those institutions, and builds confidence and experience in more humane, equitable ways of organizing ourselves and our communities.
The approach Leticia Nieto and I are taking in our Playing for Liberation workshop is certainly subversive. It totally disrupts the ways we’ve been conditioned to rely on hierarchy, expertise, and individual pursuit. Come play with us on Saturday!
Finally, the one revolutionary project I’ve been part of is co-founding a school for 4-19 year olds without grade levels, academic requirements, or any forms of evaluation; where each student and each adult member of the community have one vote—a true participatory democracy. It’s still largely unimaginable, although this particular school has been around almost 30 years, and the model coming on 60.
Of course I’ve created a workshop exploring all this. Let me know if I can bring it to you and your community. Meantime, I’d love to hear what your own reflections are about this continuum, your actions, and our collective quest for liberation.
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I’m available to facilitate race-based caucuses or affinity groups, white leadership groups,
or multi-identity working sessions. Reach out.