Social Justice

There are tons of campaigns. There are tons of causes. There are also tons of critics.

I'm guessing you've seen the Kony 2012 video that is going viral this week. And if you've seen the video, soon you'll be seeing the criticisms. Soon you'll be seeing the people saying it's a scam. Here's the deal. I DON'T KNOW if it's a scam or not, and frankly, neither do you.

Only God knows the heart and motivation of the Invisible Children organization. We live in a fallen world, with fallen people, who will use social justice as a way to scam people. There are also people who aren't trying to scam you, but social justice is harder than you think to get going and running and working. It takes money to do anything. It doesn't matter what the intent is, it takes some kind of administration and that administration costs. People are so cynical, and so critical. And perhaps they have a alternate solution.

The thing is, so many people accuse other people of being sheep, and just following the latest social justice trend because it's trendy. To those people, make sure you're not falling the other way, and following the critic trend simply because it's trendy. To other people - myself included - take a good look at your activism. See what it's rooted in, and what ways you can be active instead of just sending money. UMBC students, for you that might be going on one of the IV Urban Projects this summer, or working with Habitat for Humanity.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, because I don't think I've made a conclusive decision on where my social activism lies - I'm just sick of reading the finger pointing criticisms.