Intent vs. Outcome: why we need compassionate activism if we want real change.

This was on a church website. I feel weird about it.

I grew up doing activism in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was half assed, if I’m gonna be perfectly honest. I knew there were things that pissed me off and that needed to change, and I think my basic approach was to get people to see them and talk about them. Today’s activism, particularly the brand being championed by kids that are now the same age that I was then, is simply inspirational. Intersectionality, the true meaning of ally-ship, centering self vs. centering and uplifting the voices of those you’re trying to support…it’s so good. It’s so obvious, yet it rarely, if ever, entered into our conversations back then.

Then there’s the sheer wealth of knowledge these kids have. They see things from a perspective that we could only feel, we could only intuit. There were no words, just a sense that shit needed to change. These kids stand with their feet planted firm and their heads full of the knowledge and vocabulary of change, influenced by an entire world, an entire complex system of information. When they speak, it is often as informed as it is passionate.

One of the oft-referenced phrases that I’ve seen around activist discussions today is that intent does not outweigh outcome. It’s, again, something so clearly true that was missing from the discourse for so long, it only makes…