meme post - fatima flores

chapter 1, the art of activism; 2 quotes 

1. “In our workshops, we are interested in finding out about the moment that people decided to become activists or socially-engaged artists, or just to give a damn. We ask them to recall the first time they realized that the world needed changing, and felt stirrings within themselves to be part of that change.” (duncombe, lambert pg. 16) 

    when kids are faced with racism at a young age, they don’t understand why the parents are frustrated with it. parents would warn their kids on the racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. and how this would affect themselves and the community, knowing that they can become the change within their community. 

2. “As artistic activists, we are always trying to generate, creating experiences that generate feelings that have demonstrable impact in the world. This is the brass ring of artistic activism. We always reach toward it, sometimes we grab it and sometimes we miss. But balancing affect and effect in an æffective piece is what makes this practice an art.” (duncombe, lambert pg 29)

    being an art activist can empower other artists to become the change. artists will illustrate social issues that are important. for example, with the recent deportations of immigrants; what to do if ICE approaches you on the street or home. i’ve see illustrations and short animations on tiktok  and instagram on the do’s and dont’s of ICE coming to your home, small red cards given to young students, by teachers to warn them about ICE, etc.

memes as resistance

this meme i made on my own. this reason why i made this specific meme because there’s been a large number of anonymous calls throughout the years where people would call in ‘anonymous’ tips of immigrants doing something “illegal”, where they’re only in the U.S. for jobs and to support their families. even, with the recent presidency of donald trump, there are still ‘anonymous’ phone calls in regards to hard-working immigrants. 

unions is what make companies listen. for example, truckers (i believe, 4 months ago) went on strike for a better work enviorment and a renewed contract between truckers and their companies, on higher wages and whatnot. half the time, when unions form, when workers unite, companies tend to ‘comply’ with what the workers want; whether it’s higher minimum wages, compensation, paid-time-off, paid family/medical leave, etc. companies like amazon don’t care about their workers, they only care about money, not the welfare of their workers.

this meme itself, is self-explanatory. i’m pretty sure elon musk knew what he was doing, when he gave a speech in trump’s inauguration. he was super proud of the nazi salute, smiled at the crowd when he did it, which is weird. and what’s not really shocking, to me, i guess, is that the people that like trump but dislike elon musk, mocked the liberals or ‘leftists’ (as the republicans would call them) by doing the nazi salute. again, it’s weird. 

 patriarchy: a form of government or society where women are mostly excluded and men control the authority.

activism: aggressive campaigning as a strategy or practice to effect social or political change