Activists in Hindsight
The lone rebel standing up to the PLA in Tienanmen Square on June 4, 1989. This picture has achieved iconic status. Posters of it cover the walls of many a college dorm room. Just the briefest of references to it inspires people to take a stand against oppression. (incidentally most Chinese university students have no idea what the image is of given the complete suppression of information about the incident in China). But it’s easy to be inspired by an image after the fact. We look back on the massacre and applaud the audacity of this man and condemn the actions of the Chinese government. Just as I am sure most of us assume that we would have taken a stand against slavery in the Civil War and against the NAZI’s in the 1930’s, or supported the women’s suffrage movement in the 1910’s, or (for the younger crowd) civil rights in the 1960’s. We can co-opt the slogans of human rights movements of the past, put up the posters, buy the t-shirt. But would be really have been on “the side of good” if we had lived in those eras? Do we bother to take a stand for human rights today or do we have too many reasonable excuses why not to bother?
I look at the situation with China and Tibet and Darfur. I don’t pretend to understand all the details, but I am becoming increasingly uneasy at the excuses I hear. We rely so much on China economically and fear them politically, that we are told that it might hurt the economy if we speak out against their human rights violations. I wonder how many used that excuse during the civil war - “but we can’t free the slaves, it will destroy our economic infrastructure!” Places like Mattel even apologized to China for recalling their lead tainted toys. The corporate sponsors of the Olympics are encouraging us to support the event no matter what. I’m all for unity, but letting responsibility and human rights issues slide because of money disturbs me. When did economics become an socially approved method of avoiding compassion and justice?
I honestly don’t know exactly where I stand with these issues. They are complicated and I have much more to learn. But I can’t help but ask if in twenty years college students will look to these events as a pivotal moment for human rights? Will they put up posters smug in their assumption that they would have done something? Will they wonder why so many of us did nothing or merely offered excuses?
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Julie Clawson
Topics: History, Politics, Social Justice |
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Very thought prevoking. These are things I am wrestling with as well.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I, for one, am tired of the excuses made for China. Because of their power, they are coddled–yet our country never would’ve done that for one second with the old Soviet Union. How did we allow ourselves to get so entangled with their economy, in the first place?
Sadly, though, I do not believe we would actually DO anything as a society unless something forced our hand. If recall after recall and offense after offense doesn’t do it…it seems to me we would not change unless our government passed a trade embargo, or at the VERY least a major corporation like Wal-Mart (the latter of which I doubt would ever do it).
April 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am
But would be really have been on “the side of good” if we had lived in those eras?
That is a question that has troubled me for a long time. I want to believe that I would have been one of those who stood up for justice, that we all would have been, but I am not so sure.
So many of us abdicate personal responsibility and ignore our complicity in systems of injustice, pinning the blame on government and corporations. They are also responsible, but I fear that too many of us would rather be blind.
April 5th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I think about this often. I try to remember that there were a lot of good people (including a lot of good church people) who completely ignored the Civil Rights Movement, women’s suffrage, abolition, Indian removal, etc. I want to believe that had I lived ten, fifteen, or twenty decades ago, I would have stood up for what was right, but I’m not sure that I would have had the insight…or the guts.
However, I’m glad to see that someone else struggles with this. My husband always says that simply asking these kinds of questions is a good start to doing the right thing.
Sometimes I wonder if my generation’s biggest regret will be the evangelical treatment of the gay community in America. While international issues are hugely important (I think of Tibet, Darfur, and the fact that 39,000 children die every day from diseases we have cures for), I think we are most responsible for domestic injustice, and especially for injustice within the Church.
Thanks for the post!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Speaking the truth to power is tough, but the difficulty decreases with distance not only in time, but also in space.
For that lone guy in front of the tanks it was really tough, because he was there.
But most Americans are not there, and perhaps need to speak the truth to power closer to home — not Tianamnen Square or Tibet, but Guantanamo Bay.
Say I, who am not in America.