What is co-optation? Let’s talk green-washing, diversity & inclusion campaigns, misunderstanding decolonization, land acknowledgements, & more.
Just cuz someone’s talking about a thing doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about! For example, they might be a business trying to bank off of a social movement. As a matter of fact, did you know exactly that was actually one of the first major experiments in public relations (aka advertising) in U.S. history? Yep, Edward Bernays tried to sell women cigarettes by coupling their consumption with the suffrage movement in the US. He came up with the catchy slogan ‘torches of freedom’ & did some savvy product placement at an event and it caught fire. To the order of countless women subsequently getting hooked and dying of lung cancer & other cigarette-related diseases.
So what is co-optation exactly? Merriam-Webster calls it “the act or an instance of co-opting something: a taking over or appropriation of something for a new or different purpose. // the co-optation of the raised fist as a patriotic symbol- Niela Orr” is given as an example. Co-optation is one of the perennial concerns of movements for collective liberation. Liberals, politicians, businesses, and celebrities consistently try to subsume the potency and resonance of revolutionary organizing to serve their own aims. They parrot style and lack substance. And distract a whole lotta our loved ones who could have otherwise gotten connected with legit groups and community spaces and purpose and power.
PS- Yes, this is a lil’ snippet of my book Pulling Weeds & Planting Seeds: on Decolonial Discernment. Make sure to cite my intellectual production if you’re inspired by these ideas & wanna share them out! Don’t steal from BIWOC – have ethics! Don’t plagiarize or my folx will come for you.
PPS- Please help Liberation Spring on Patreon or Paypal so this book can support our discernment in these deadly times.