Recently Michele Stopera Freyhauf posted an important blog about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and parallel challenges that are making use of this medium; including Orlando Jones’ reimagining of this challenge, in which he dumped a bucket of bullet shell casings over his head to “bring attention to the disease of apathy.” In her blog, Michele asks us to critically consider the way a person’s privilege may impact one’s response to such campaigns. She proposes that we use good stewardship in our enacting of a given challenge, highlighting ways in which charitable giving must be a product of deliberate, liberative praxis.
I agree with Michele: deliberate praxis (action + reflection!) is essential to justice making. And justice-making, solidarity and allyship are all kinds of work that take continual action and reevaluation. In light of such discussions of privilege and solidarity, I would like to use this blog to lift up another important reimagining of the ice bucket challenge: Mia McKenzie’s BGD White Privilege Media Bucket Challenge!
Mia McKenzie is the creator of Black Girl Dangerous (BGD), a reader supported, “grassroots arts and media project,” designed to “amplify the voices of queer and trans* people of color.” Articles on the website, www.blackgirldangerous.org, discuss a wide range of topics related to justice-making in the face of particular oppressions (and their intersections), practical strategies for breaking down privilege and standing in solidarity, queer and trans identity, and a great deal more. Some recent titles include: “All Grown Up Under Hip Hop,” “Four Person-to-Person Things I Do to Address Anti-Blackness con Mi Gente,” and “What HIV Testing is Like When You Are Queer, Black and Undocumented.” Continue reading ““The White Privilege Media Bucket Challenge” @blackgirldang”
Feminism and Religion 