Aufgabe HT 2 - Task 1 · Abitur NRW Englisch LK · Haupttermin · Weiterbildungskolleg 2023

Klausurteil A

Daniel Hunter

Don't Believe the Lie That Voting Is All You Can Do

Stop minimizing the work of movements.

The Black Lives Matter movement has had significant wins in recent months. Municipalities

have removed statues of racists, corporations have changed branding that reinforced racial

stereotypes, schools have cut ties with police forces and cities have reduced police funding.

But too often, politicians, celebrities and community leaders who applaud the protesters for

5 these victories are quick to follow up by asserting, like Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of

Atlanta, that voting "would be the most effective response, the deepest payback" for George

Floyd's death – or that there is "no greater form of protest" than voting, as Lisa Deeley,

chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, put it.

I've led movements for most of my adult life and have heard similar misguided refrains far

10 too many times. The truth is voting is an honorable act that many movements use as a tactic.

But the popular message that it's the only real source of power misleads the public about

how social change happens and stifles the energy required to bring about the change we need.

Instead of suggesting that participation in movements is inferior to voting, people with

influence should educate themselves and the public about the often hidden role of social

15 movements in achieving change in this country.

Movements led to the abolition of slavery, brought Jim Crow to its knees and won child

labor laws, the minimum wage, the Clean Water Act and more. African-Americans and

women wouldn't even have the right to vote if it weren't for people taking action.

Those victories weren't just the results of elections. They came from the work of activists

20 to change social conditions. Where voting changes the players on the battlefield, social

movements alter the very terrain on which the battle is being fought.

"Movement work is the thing that enables any of the legal and policy change to be successful,"

Chase Strangio, a lawyer who won the recent Supreme Court ruling protecting L.G.B.T.

rights, explained in an interview with GQ. He noted that Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote

25 the majority opinion, had initially worried that protecting transgender people might result in

social upheaval. But less than a year later, his mind had been changed.

"On some level, I have to believe that in eight months, he learned something from watching

what was going on in the world," he said. "And that is a testament not to our briefs and not

to the legal movement, but to the organizing movement."

30 A common misconception about movements – like the mythic story that Rosa Parks's refusal

to move to the back of the bus spontaneously sparked the civil rights movement – is that

they "just happen."

Yes, George Floyd's brutal murder, a flagrantly racist president and the pent-up emotions

of a pandemic motivated people to take to the streets to demand racial justice. But social

35 movements never emerge just because conditions are bad.

Bill Moyer, a movement strategist, wrote about this dynamic in his "Movement Action Plan."

He noted that the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979

became a rallying point for people concerned about the dangers of nuclear power. Yet

Michigan's Enrico Fermi plant had been closer to a full meltdown in 1966 and didn't lead to

40 soul-searching or a social crisis. The difference was that in the intervening years, organizers

had worked to seed local groups, build national networks, hone responses to the pronuclear

lobby and develop alternative policy platforms.

The current movement has done all those things, spurred largely by the 2014 protests in

Ferguson, Mo., over the killing of Michael Brown. It grew into a network of dozens of local

45 Black Lives Matter chapters across the United States and Canada. Groups like Black Youth

Project 100 and Movement for Black Lives built comprehensive policy platforms, leading

to radical, ground-shaking demands like "defund the police." As Jessica Byrd, a leader in

Movement for Black Lives, said in a recent interview with Time, "Movement made this

moment different."

50 If one isn't aware of this work, it's easy to assume that after this phase of street protests ends,

the movement will be gone and it will be time to turn to the "real" work of voting to fulfill

our civic duty.

But people who understand movements know that voting is not the end – it's one part of the

process. Movements amplify complex questions that otherwise get simplified to sound bites

55 in elections. Questions like: Does society really need armed police answering mental health

crises? Can the police be reformed while still armed with military-grade weapons? What are

practical alternatives to police systems? By changing people's views, movements apply

pressure to decision makers.

Contrary to popular belief, movements shouldn't be measured by whether the preferred

60 candidates get into office, nor are they undermined by short-term failures to cobble together

national legislation.

A better yardstick for a movement is the public's perception of the problem, a growing

certainty that current policies don't work – and ultimately people's commitment to

embracing alternatives.

65 After all, the 1960s student sit-ins against segregation did not immediately result in legislative

wins. Even after the peak event of the March on Washington, it took another year for the

1964 Civil Rights Act to become law.

It's tempting to think that reform will rain down if we elect the right leaders. Yet most of us

know through experience that voting is no magic bullet. Regardless of who wins the election

70 in November, anyone seeking justice knows there's an enormous amount of work ahead of

us. Movements provide an avenue to do that work.

So yes, I'll vote – and help turn out the vote. But I'll never believe the lie that that's the best or

only thing I can do to change this country.

Annotations:

16 · Jim Crow – here: laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern states from the 1870s to the 1950s

23 – 24 · L.G.B.T. rights – rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

24 · GQ – a US magazine focusing on men's fashion and style

24 – 25 · (to) write the majority opinion – (to) write down the judicial opinion agreed to by the majority of the members of the Supreme Court

30 · Rosa Parks – a black activist in the Civil Rights Movement who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger

33 · a flagrantly racist president – reference to Donald Trump, US president at the time of publication

48 · Time – US quality news magazine and website

66 · March on Washington – political demonstration in Washington, D.C., in 1963 by the civil rights movement to protest against racial discrimination and show support for civil rights legislation that was pending in Congress

67 · Civil Rights Act – legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin

69 – 70 · the election in November – reference to the 2020 US presidential election

Klausurteil A: Leseverstehen und Schreiben integriert

1. Outline the author's statements on the typical features of social movements and on how effective they are. (Comprehension) [12 Punkte]