Fatima Al-Saedy

ETH 2400

Tactics for Change Paper

After understanding the different types of oppression, the three following tactics stayed

ingrained in my mind when it came to solutions; those are using social media, the courts, and

comedy and satire.

Starting off with social media, this tactic is a way of spreading awareness and change

through the realm of Social Media. A call for action through a lens that is revealing to the world.

I have a background of being a political-social activist. I use some of my online platforms to

educate and bring awareness to subjects that are currently happening. The things that I have seen

with this tactic in a positive way are things that are documented and recorded which can show

people worldwide things that are going on in real-time. It raises awareness and it is almost easy

to access. The negative is algorithms, canceled culture, and biased sources. Some result we can

see with the tactic of social media is the Arab Spring which took down dictators in the Arab

world. Social media addresses all types of oppression.

The court tactic of causing change is using the legal system against itself. Using the

courts as a tactic of change can positively create precedents that cause a huge impact. A negative

effect is the court system is a gamble. Either you can win or lose. If you lose you would have to

rebuild your case all the way back from square one. Some other negatives are it can backfire,
court decisions can be reversed, or subjective interpretation can be applied when dealing with the

precedent between judges. An example of using the courts against itself is the reversal of Plessy

v Ferguson. The court case Brown v Board of Education [the reversal] caused a big impact on

the school system by removing separation in school, the downside is it took 12 years. The type of

oppression using the court addresses is systematic.

Comedy and satire is the tactic of using stand-up and other settings. This tactic can be

done to address all types of oppression. A comedian I really enjoy is Hasan Minhaj, he used to

have the show Patriot Act and be on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, where he called out

climate change leaders, ivy colleges, and even the IRS and platforms that were supposed to allow

the users to do their taxes for free. It did cause a spark of conversation on these topics. Yes, you

are laughing about the millions of dollars in student debt, but at the same time, it is a reality

check of our current world. The positive of this tactic is having active discussions and

conversations about these topics. The pitfall is the profession is not taken seriously so is the

person activating for these causes.

Fighting and separating is a form of violence, the only peace that can come from violence

is your inner self because you have released your rage. However, even the peace you think you

have achieved is actually very superficial. It is not a very realistic feeling of peace. An example

of using violence is the American Revolution, yes the colonies became free from Britain,

however, this tactic also fails to mention the pitfall which is if you are dealing with a power

system, in most cases another power would replace it, and become the new oppressors.

I think having the mindset of nonviolence is possible, but staying nonviolent is almost

impossible. Nonviolence doesn’t eliminate violence. Just because you stay nonviolent does not

mean the oppressor will. In fact, it makes the oppressor will be more outraged if nonviolent. The
principles of nonviolence are peace, universal truth, love, and moral righteousness. A famous

example of this tactic being used is Gandhi with India. He pathed the way to India’s freedom

from the British. However, the way I have studied Gandhi's work and the British leaving India is

they were planning to leave anyway because they no longer had the money to stay in India. The

peaceful protest did make the process a little bit faster but not by much. Yes, India received its

freedom but also the number of people who died from partition was in the high thousands. Some

of the stories are so heart-shattering, for example, fathers out of fear would have to kill their

daughters and wives because they were afraid of their honor being taken away from them or

dying a tortured death. Even today we can see the system that the British put in place and that

caused a seeded loathing of hate between Muslims and Hindus which can still be seen today. I

agree nonviolent tactics can bring change, but I don’t think they can stand alone to maintain

change.

My tactic for causing change would be to use all the following. I wish I could draw this

out because it would make more sense. My idea has a little bit of the utopia aspect, nonviolence,

social media, the courts, and satire because people need to laugh for dopamine reasons.

This tactic would be for systemic oppression, using social media and the court system

together would be a nonviolent way of bringing change. Currently how our justice system works

is terrible. Straight up it needs hardcore reform to not just fit the needs of the people, but to

establish righteous justice. By using social media we can talk about current cases of inmates who

have been imprisoned wrongly and the penalties of the war on drugs to bring awareness to the

cause. It has been something that has been used with death penalty inmates in the last couple of

years. The only violent part of the movement plan is protests got off-hand and protesters would

need to fight back.

 I want to come up with a tactic of change that is different from what we already have

because I think what we have in place is good, it has just all been seen historically. That is why I

am so excited to go into social justice so I can learn and develop a tactic that can attack systemic

oppression. I love the idea of nonviolence, but I think it is missing something and I don’t know

what the something is yet. However, when I go to college it will be my search to answer what

tactic can really help me with change.