Everyday Resistance

The path of resistance is a hydra, split into many heads.  We are most familiar with the most visible forms of resistance that Reed mentions in “Why is There No Black Political Movement?”—those that are planned by interest-based organizations.  Yet, similar to the way it was mentioned earlier that everyone is a philosopher in their own right, the common worker can too be a symbol of resistance.  I particularly liked the idea that every act of defiance doesn’t have to be a grand gesture with the main intent to overthrow the forces of oppression.  The examples that Kelley’s “Race Rebels” gave of McDonalds employee resisting are really interesting because they challenged my expectations of what resistance looked like.  Who knew that something as mischievous as sneaking food home from work and adding embellishments to one’s distasteful uniform was essentially “sticking it to the man”?  The great thing about these unexpected form of resistances is that they’re unexpected, thus fighting off traditional ways of protesting.  Though Baudrillard suggests withdrawing one’s consent to dismantle the hegemonic power sounds logical enough—identify the single thing that hegemony depends on (i.e. consent of the masses) and do the opposite—it isn’t concrete.  Similarly, while organized revolts are equally as valid, it has the potential to skim over certain subgroups in the population it is supposed to represent—or, as Kelley puts it, it disregards the diversity and conflict present within a group of people.  In practicing everyday resistance, not only are participants protesting “traditional” topics of protest—hence seemingly embodying resistance in its purest form—but they also are aiming for immediate gains for themselves.  Though public and symbolic goals may consequently be put on the back burner, I don’t think that it is necessarily selfish that people perform these daily resistances for what is mostly personal gain because it seems to me that the purpose of resisting in the first place is to serve the masses.  Given that the masses is comprised of these people, I can hardly blame them for taking charge of their own liberation and eating the fruits of their resistance.