By: Karissa Ketter, News Editor
At this point in the 21st century, most Gen Z’s are aware our world faces many crises. If you tune into news or social media, you’ll undoubtedly be reminded of the devastating inhumanities resulting in protests in Iran, or the Russia-Ukraine war that’s now in its ninth month. Honestly, take your pick — the housing crisis, lack of reproductive rights, the dire state of democracy, climate change, racial injustice, refugee rights, food insecurities, COVID-19 . . . The list goes on, and on, and on. The amount of issues that societies face globally are so vast and most of them are interconnected.
Let’s say you’re interested in a specific area of social activism. Take climate change as an example: You go to your first climate protest, and feel pretty excited to get out and make tangible change. Then, next week you learn that climate change is pretty closely connected to food insecurity. More research leads to you learning about the connection between the agriculture industry and the treatment of immigrants and refugees. So, next, you attend a protest for the treatment of local refugees.
With the amount of issues we face, if we force ourselves to give our all for every movement, at some point we’re going to get tired. Activism can be extremely exhausting for protestors — both physically and emotionally.
It’s well documented that Black folks who protest their own racial injustices are most likely to face this emotional burnout. NPR did a survey with 500 Black Americans and many of them reported feeling depressed, anxious, and chronically fatigued from exerting so much emotional labour. NPR believes this is due to the accumulation of stress from protesting while seeing no difference in the amount of racism Black folks face on a daily basis.
After experiencing activist fatigue, many protesters will take a break from their work. However, others will stop entirely. I think this is completely understandable — if you’ve put massive amounts of effort into a campaign and there’s no progress, no appreciation from your community, and no time to engage in self-care — at some point many people will have hopelessness wash over them and they’ll stop participating. However, this is also why white folks and others with privilege in society, who do have the energy to participate, should. If people take action when they can, others will feel less alone, and movements can continue their momentum.
So, is burnout just an inevitable part of social activism? How can we still help movements that are important to us if we don’t have the physical or emotional capacity to support them?
I know from personal experience that choosing not to participate in a social movement or protest can come with the feeling of guilt. Am I a bad person because I’m not doing anything to stand up for what’s important to me? Sure, I’ve been to TMX protests and participated in other movements before. But it also sometimes feels like no matter what I do, that pipeline is going in whether I like it or not. Attending protests now makes me feel so much disappointment and anger towards our government for letting this happen.
Activist burnout has caught the attention of political scientists, too. A study conducted by Cher Weixia Chen and Paul Gorski suggests that activists and social movements need to address the structural issues that lead to burnout within their movements. The act of protesting is meant to be selfless — you’re putting your own needs aside to stand up for injustice within your community. However, engaging in self-care doesn’t necessarily contradict your act of selflessness. In fact, Chen and Gorski found that when movements build strategies and create structural emotional support for their activists, their movement is more immune to burnout.
Essentially, you don’t need to feel guilty when you take time for yourself. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the intimidating number of problems we’re facing — take a step back, rest, and recharge. The movement will still be there when you’re ready. Take care of yourself first, and you’ll be better suited to take care of your movement later.
