Christianity is the main force behind Adam Taylor’s activism, but he says that the tools to use our power to effect change are universal, and stretch across religious boundaries.
Taylor, in his new book, “Mobilizing Hope: Faith Based Activism for a Post–Civil Rights Generation,” writes that our country’s excessive focus on rugged individualism is one of the barriers to social activism. That individualism used to be about hard work and entrepreneurship but now focuses more on “survival of the fittest,” which comes at the expense of the common good, says Taylor. Believing in our common dependence is the answer to this problem.
One of the most inspirational parts of the book, which marked a turning point in Taylor’s life, was his description of his discovery of the concept of “pragmatic solidarity,” which a mentor defined as “the desire to make common cause with those in need” and “offering goods and services that might diminish unjust hardship.”
After studying in South Africa for a year, Taylor decided he wanted to go back to fight for the social justice of the resilient South African people. Sizwe, his program director, told Taylor that if he really wanted to help, he should return to America and create enough influence there that other countries would hopefully follow.
“I carry the images and relationships with people I’ve met around the world in my heart, mind, and spirit. These people form a cloud of witnesses that speak into my decisions, and I sense them cheering me on as I try to advance the cause of social justice in the United States and around the world,” he wrote. This is when Taylor says that he learned about solidarity.
“Carrying the pain of others with you helps you to stay focused on what you are working to achieve, and without others, you get lost,” Taylor writes. He fights to change the status quo on many issues in America with the hope to maybe one day cause other countries to do so. And don’t forget the key ingredient to successful activism: hope. Without it, activism is like a balloon with no air.
Poverty is one of the main issues that Taylor believes can be battled, even by a small number of people, as long as they have hope. He described how poverty disproportionally impacts African Americans and Latinos in the United States. One of the easiest places to see this gap is within the school system, where, Taylor says, it is difficult to separate poverty from education. Taylor believes that one reason Mayor Adrian Fenty was “booted out of office” was because there was unequal progress in school reforms in the city. Taylor believes a “two-pronged strategy” is necessary to reduce poverty: reform the school system and address the economic hardships that make it difficult for children to learn, an argument I find compelling.
A problem with focusing on test scores is the failure to target the factors that affect those test scores the moment a student steps foot outside school doors.
Taylor believes his biracial background gives him special insight into the education gap. Attending a racially-diverse high school in Tucson, Ariz. taught Taylor about inequality. The school was “polarized” around race, he said, and was academically divided between students who were on a “fast track” and those who were on a “regular track.”
Most of the students on the “fast track” were white, and from being a part of that learning group, Taylor says he received better resources. The expectation for college was also lower for students in the “regular track.” The double standard enraged Taylor and is one of the reasons he so strongly believes that “everyone has the potential to achieve with the right opportunities.”
Activism among young people has declined since the turbulent ’60s. During the Jim Crow era, injustice was much more blatant, and now it is more covert. The unjust economic policies are much more difficult to address than the denial of voting rights and access to public facilities. Young people are also steered away from activism due to their disillusionment with politics and the debts they are burdened with after college. Debt quells their passion and limits their choices, leading them away from careers with nonprofits because of their need to make money to pay off debts. Taylor says becoming involved in service at the national or global level is more satisfying than joining a political justice campaign.
Social movements are the key to affecting politics, said Taylor, and I agree. During the Civil Rights Movement, people sacrificed their time, even their lives, to facilitate change.
“It only takes a committed minority of people to transform politics and our society,” said Taylor. Besides the heavy disillusionment with politics, technology also stands as a barrier to replicate great social movements of earlier decades. As much as technology facilitates communication, it can also create the opposite effect: a splintering of the American people; a barrier to collective action. The current abundance of information available to the public causes people to spend their time and energy focusing on many more interests than before, which means fewer people to join together for a larger cause.
This sometimes prevents people with the same interests from finding one another, because anyone can form a group for a cause, resulting in many duplicate organizations that could be more successful working together to reach the same goals. Rugged individualism plays a role here as well; the leader of one group wants to solve the problem before the leader of another, instead of joining forces.
But in Taylor’s experience, social activism has still made a great impact, even if on a different level than movements during the ’60s. His work with AIDS has had a profound impact on his life. Following the issue allowed him to see the power that ordinary people can have in changing policy around an issue.
Through his work on AIDS, Taylor has seen the number of people with access to life-prolonging treatment increase from 50 thousand people in 2001 to three million in 2008, all because people pushed Congress, the President, and the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices.
Another project that has changed Taylor’s life is the campaign to increase minimum wage nationally. In 2007 and 2008 the minimum wage was increased for the first time in decades in the U.S. He says it is one piece in attacking poverty; which never stood out to me as an important factor before. My perceptions of poverty have been highly occupied by education gaps and unemployment, especially since the economic crisis hit. I never stopped to realize that many people who do have jobs still aren’t getting paid enough; minimum wage currently sits at $7.25.
Taylor hopes with this book to mobilize hope and to inspire people to seek change with that hope. Once people understand the obstacles to social activism, they will be able to overcome those obstacles to reach results.
