What Do You Mean Joy is an Act of Resistance?!

This is an AI representation of a pic I took at a protest of an ICE facility in 2020 I was involved in, done mainly to conceal identities and license plates

There’s no need to belabor the point that we live in a dumpster fire of a timeline. If you need a chronicle of all that sucks right now, just … like … look at *gestures wildly at everything*.

If you’re like me, you feel like you have to either flee the country or fight with all your being. You don’t know which. You don’t even know what to do if you chose either path. You’re just suspended in this inert state stuck between feeling compelled to do something and not having any idea what to do or if any of it even matters.

Ok, so pretty bleak place to find ourselves, right? What’s with this blog, wasn’t the word “Joy” in the title?!

We’re gonna get there.

This same conversation has been happening with all of my cherished relationships lately. “How are you doing?” is commonly answered with “hanging in there” as if our every day is literally comparable to hanging for life from a branch about to break. “I’m not crashing or dying right this moment, so I guess I’m doing good?”

These times feel like we’re doomed and all is in collapse. This isn’t the case, this just feels like it.

Let’s start by addressing that, as you must confront reality if you’re going to find joy in any way. The reality, dear reader, is that we’re absolutely not in the worst imaginable times. Life was literally worse in most of the times that precede us. Are any of us going to stand on business and say that today is objectively worse than the apartheid state of the 1960’s and before?

This isn’t our first confrontation with fascism in our country (speaking of the US in this regard). It’s not even the first time fascists have gained near absolute control of the country. Might I remind you of all of our history in this country? The fascism we’ve engaged in from jump, going back to 1619, has been exported into nearly every other apartheid state or genocide in other countries.

The Nazis learned from us and emulated Jim Crow in the Third Reich. South Africa modeled their apartheid state off of ours. We’ve inspired many a nasty dictator and we’ve given fascists the blueprints for how to do it themselves.

Comparing slavery, reconstruction, the genocide of Native Americans, sharecropping, eugenics of the 1910’s and 20’s, German Shephards and firehoses and separate facilities, etc. to what we’re dealing with today should lay it plain that we are not in those times. Yet.

What we’re afraid of and what is happening can often be two different things, even if what we’re afraid of is a return to our fascism. We’re not losing our hundreds of years long experiment with Democracy; we’ve never had it. Acknowledge and sit with that.

I’m not invalidating any fears about where we’re absolutely headed to. Those concerns, those fears, they’re very valid at their core. But we truly need to level set if we’re going to be effective and not overrun by that fear. Broken by it.

Ok, great, so we’re at base zero. Now we can talk a little about joy.

I recently had a great conversation with two dear friends that run a podcast called The Bouquet, Kenya Alexander and Sonya Kachinski, about this very subject. We were talking about how one navigates these times, work, life, etc. while not losing your mind or breaking into pieces from the weight of it all.

How are people in Ukraine still doing web design? How are people in Palestine still skateboarding through the ruins of their cities? For them, for us, there’s no choice in it. You have to live. You have to eat. You have to raise your kids. Those things are not negotiable for most people.

What’s incredible to witness, however, is how many of them are doing it joyfully.

I asked Kenya and Sonya about this. They both mentioned finding joy, how joy is an act of resistance. This is a statement I hear all the time from people on the left, but what exactly does it mean? How is joy an act of resistance?

To be honest, every time I’ve heard this phrase I’ve internally rolled my eyes; it always felt to me like soft self-help bullshit. “Yes the world is on fire, but instead of grabbing a firehose and putting it out, just experience joy!”

They set me straight.

Tyranny thrives off of compliance. Never comply in advance; that’s the best advice to thwarting tyranny. It thrives, however, on you being so afraid and broken that you will comply in advance. That you won’t stand up to voice opposition for fear of being killed, imprisoned, or shunned.

Fascism depends on you being afraid of the government, of your neighbors and teachers and workplaces and restaurants and everything. It uses media and violence to break us down as a civilization.

Joy is an act of resistance because you’re too stubborn to let them break you.

Further, fascists hate nothing more than being made fun of, not being taken seriously, of us not being afraid of them. Joy is the best way to prove to them that they’re feckless and powerless to stop us.

Joy is an act of resistance because it’s the thing that takes their power away right in front of their noses.

Hearing this reminded me of a protest I was in back in 2020. We were protesting an ICE facility in Salinas, CA, and we shut down the 101 freeway. Cops were EVERYWHERE. Biggest police response to any protest I saw in 2020.

This is one of the only safe images to share from this action

After the protest was making its way back to where it started, with cops surrounding us, helicopters circling with spotlights on us, everyone started dancing. Tired, feet busted, folks were hanging on the van I was driving with other protestors dancing and singing along to the music we were loudly playing.

Despite the clear intimidation the police were trying to impose on us, we expressed pure joy.

Tell me that isn’t resistance.

That joy didn’t get prisoners out of that facility. It didn’t stop police violence. Joy isn’t going to undo fascism. But it will RESIST it. That word carries a lot of weight here.

I had another conversation with my friend and business partner Courtney about this very concept. She had even more insight to why joy is an important part of resistance, but isn’t the whole bag.

Let’s talk about the 4 I’s of Oppression: Ideological (white supremacy, for instance), Institutional (prison industrial complex or immigration), Inter-personal (neighbors turning in neighbors), and lastly, Internalized (I believe what they say about me).

Of the 4 I’s, the most important one to giving fascism power is the last one, Internalized Oppression: it’s only when we’ve been defeated in ourselves that fascism will have won. It’s the most insidious of them all, and it definitely leads to complying in advance.

When we express joy, we fight against that all important pillar of oppression. We refuse to internalize their hatred, anger and bigotry. We express joy in contrast to it, the light that outshines the dark.

One of the reasons I speak out, show up in the streets, advocate for equity and justice in the workplace, is simply to show courage to others. I have no misconception that my protesting on a freeway has ever changed a policy. My feet have never stopped a police officer’s bullet from taking an innocent life. What I have done, rather, is show others that might have been afraid or paralyzed from action to see others doing it, proudly, fearlessly, and yes, with joy, and decided to join in themselves.

People follow other people in strength. Fear is crippling, but witnessing action is, in and of itself, a call to action.

By making it look fun through expressing joy (and let’s not kid ourselves, there is fun to find in these moments, see my story above about dancing on the freeway), we increase participation, we increase the volume. This DOES reduce fascist power.

So I’m on board. Easier said than done, of course. But I’m ready to infuse joy back into my life, how I interact with this moment. I’ve always enjoyed stepping out of the lines of the system, it’s always brought me great joy. Advocating for others, experiencing the embrace of community fighting for justice, these things are truly enjoyable.

Don’t let them break you down so far you can’t experience joy. Don’t ever feel ashamed of it. Consider it vital to surviving and being effective at fighting authoritarianism.

I’ll see you in the streets, smiling and dancing like my ass is magnetized to the asphalt. Hope yours is too.