When it comes to the subject of social activism, there are few local figures who come to mind more readily than 22 year old Dieu Do. With dozens of prior accomplishments in the field of social activism, it came as no surprise when a grassroots fundraising campaign that Do organized in May of 2020 brought in over $10,000. I was able to sit down with Do to get her perspective on activism, whether it be through social media, hashtags, or in person.
Interviewer: Tell me a little about what the idea of activism means to you.
Do: Honestly, it can mean so many different things. Activism is something that should be a completely selfless act, something that you do because you see a group of people that are in need of support and you want to help.
But I think it’s turning into something that’s being done because it’s expected or because people are afraid of the repercussions if they don’t take a clear stand.
Interviewer: Do you think that this type of forced activism is harmful to the efforts that others are genuinely putting in?
Do: It definitely can be. As a Social Justice major in school we talk a lot about the idea of performative activism.
Interviewer: Can you explain the concept of performative activism?
Do: Yeah! Performative activism is the idea that there are people who are supporting a cause because they maybe feel pressured to or they want to look as if they are supportive. A really common example of it is when people just share an article or a post or add a hashtag to their bio and their efforts stop there.
Most of the time this doesn’t really harm the efforts that other people are making, but there are some situations where it can kind of drown out the real hard work that real activists are putting in.
Interviewer: Do you have any examples of a situation where that might have happened?
Do: I mean one that I think that a lot of people are familiar with is the Black Out Tuesday situation that happened last summer. Everyone was posting a black square with the black out Tuesday hashtag but also with the Black Lives Matter hashtag, and with thousands of these posts, it became really difficult for people to find posts that had actual crucial information on the protests and situation that was unfolding.
Interview: That was right around the time that you put together your fundraising campaign, right?
Do: Yep! During all the protests that were happening in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the community was really hurting. There were families that didn’t have access to groceries and people who needed food and supplies around the cities.
Interview: How did this campaign start? What did you do to get the ball rolling?
Do: I was making a supply run to a local church that was offering assistance to people living in one of the neighborhoods that was hit pretty hard, and I posted a link to my Venmo account on my Instagram story, and asked for donations from people who wanted to help.
Within the first couple days I had almost $1,000 in my account. There were so many places taking supply donations, it almost became a full time job for a couple weeks there. I was just going between the store and the donation locations with full car loads of whatever supplies they were reporting that they needed.
Interviewer: What advice would you give to someone who wants to help a community and be an active advocate but doesn’t know where to start?
Do: Start small. Make a donation, volunteer for an event, find something that will directly help, and just do it. Don’t overwhelm yourself, but just start. The people you’ll meet and connections you will make will lead you to more opportunities to help. The key is to just start. Wherever and however you can.
