What You Advocate For Is Both Personal And Public

Ever since Bisi Alimi posted his “response” to all the outrage caused by his Facebook post, I’ve been getting stormed by people who want to know what I have to say. I hadn’t read this response, and I said as much, telling those inquisitors that I was done with the whole matter.

But someone, a friend, was on my case yesterday morning, and I decided to get it out of the way. He supplied the link and I read, and here’s what I have to say.

Everybody believes what they believe from a personal place: whether it’s about how what you believe affects you or those who you care about. Everybody’s politics is rooted in his/her personal relationship with the issue and how it impacts his life or his environment. For anyone to really be consistent and passionate about advocating for social change, you must first have an intimate, personal understanding of the issue.

I don’t dispute that.

But …

When one lifts his politics from that personal space to a public arena, it ceases to be just about him. Turning your politics into a voice that loudly and publicly advocates for change brings with it a responsibility for one to be more sensitive of those whose struggles he’s highlighting. You don’t have to tailor your advocacy according to the expectations of these people. You don’t have to do things the way you perceive them wanting you to do it. You don’t have to answer to anyone: you can only let your heart guide you.

But you do have to be considerate of the community your voice represents. Because when you start speaking out, when you start challenging the system, the world doesn’t just look at you; it looks at the people affected by the status quo you’re trying to shake loose.

It’s the same thing with a privately-owned company and a public industry: the similarity is that one man started them, the difference is who the man answers to.

The post I made reacted to the entirety of Bisi Alimi’s update. The entire thing was unpleasant, insensitive, inconsiderate, callous and not at all the words of a man who wants people to understand that “to be able to give Bisi Alimi, I have to make sure Bisi Alimi understands that to be an effective advocate, his politics have to be personal.”

Perhaps next time, when this antagonist Bisi Alimi speaks of riles him, he shouldn’t come to such a public space as his timeline to say that “I am not doing what I am doing for you. I am doing it for me. If you benefit from it, then good luck to you.” (How he can say that about a people whose situation he makes a living off of is still beyond my comprehension.)

Perhaps next time an average LGBT individual comes on such a post to ask for clarification on what he is saying, he shouldn’t condescend so callously to such a person and dismiss him as someone who is not worthy of his attention.

Perhaps next time, he should think carefully about what he has to say and give voice to it in a way that addresses a specific wrong instead of dismissing an entire community of people.

Your politics is both personal and public. Telling yourself otherwise is just you looking for a rationalization for bad behaviour.

Written by Pink Panther