Individualized Activism- Can one person really make a difference?

This week, we talked about a long interview with Barbara Smith, one of the founders of the black feminist movement. She talked in length about her own experiences in different activism movements and why she got involved. In our discussion of this document, my group talked a lot about how she valued the importance of championing multiple movements. She felt as though different movements that related to one marginalized groups were exclusive to each other. She spent a lot of her active years bringing these movements together so that they could all be stronger and realize that intersectionality is an important part of social change. There are very few issues that don't have greater impacts than the lives of those in the movement and it is very important to stand together instead of falling apart.

For my movement this week, I talked about Gaylord Nelson, one of the founders of the Earth Day movement. He worked with others across the nation to organize a day/protest that spanned every single group across the United States. While the environment is something that affects every single person living on the planet, he worked and organized tirelessly to ensure that everyone had access to this massive event. To answer my question in the title of this post, I think that one person can help cause ripples in the tide of human connection that influence others to speak out. While both Barbara Smith and Gaylord Nelson may not have written legislation or made concrete change solely on their own, they used their platforms to encourage others to do the same.