The Evidence

To find the best evidence possible for this paper, I found outside sources through search engines, such as google, to learn more about recent social movements that are not solely based around race and racial tensions. It is somewhat obvious to see the effect declaring your racial identification during a movement that attempts to implement or prevent social change that deals with race or class. Throughout the year we have analyzed social movements, like this, that deal with the Civil Rights Movement, Garveyism and other black social movements. However I feel that we get an honest, distinct answer, or perspective as to what the effect of racially identifying does to a movement and whether or not it promotes exclusivity when your race is not the most dominant factor in that given movement. I found evidence that dealt with the anti-consumerism movement that has become popular in recent years. The anti-conusmerism movement promotes people to purchase less material possessions and corporations to stop making purchases that are purely economical, without caring about the potential environmental, social or ethical concerns it may cause. 

The risk I run in attempting to find a movement that doesn't deal solely with race is finding one that doesn't answer the prompt; whether racially identifying is helpful or harmful to the given movement. The source, titled Distinct Consumption and Popular Anti-Consumerism, uses the movie Wall*E, "one of the most celebrated recent examples of a popular anti-consumerism that now appears all but obligatory, is an instructive example of their ideological instrumentality" to show the differences between how we consume and the effect it has on our world (McNaughtan 1). The source elaborates on this 'individualistic' idea of consuming, something most, if not all do, that directly affects everyone. It goes on to present solutions, that include different mindsets as to 'how we should buy' , for the readers to understand. The movement itself has little to do with race, and bolsters the idea of maybe not declaring racial identification, because it has no place within the movement. With that said, 'how we buy and spend' depends on what we have materially and financially. This idea can correlate with class and ultimately race. And with that understanding, different groups or class people, which may or may not cause racial distinction, will have different mindsets and goals regarding the movement. I am unsure if this article will connect to my argument within the paper, but it does bring up an interesting point that questions how different movements affect people of different races differently. In these cases, is it smart to identify your race and ethnicity for the basis of your argument? This topic is very specific, but also complex as there are may things that need to be considered in answering whether racial identification is helpful or harmful.