Save the Polar Bear Costume for the Afterparty

Someday in the distant future, I’ll sit with my young granddaughter and show her pictures from the early climate change movement.

“Who are those weirdos, Grandma?” she’ll ask, referring to photos of polar bears in handcuffs.
“Oh, those were ‘the environmentalists,’” I’ll reply. “They used to think that it was a very good idea to dress up in ridiculous costumes, and try to scare people. They thought it would make people believe in climate change.”
“Why did they think that was a good idea?” she’ll ask innocently, “When they look like such freakin’ idiots?”
“Watch your mouth.” I’ll say. “We didn’t raise you to talk like that. But honey, I think they just decided it was fun, and didn’t care about the negative effect it had on the other 99.5% of the population. Which ironically, were the very people they were trying to get on their side.”
“That’s stupid,” she’ll say. “I want a popsicle.”

I struggle to understand the attraction that street theater, as an organizing strategy, has for some environmentalists. And for clarity, I define street theater in the environmental organizing context to include any form of direct action protest that involves costumes and props; giant walking globes, crying human polar bears, hippies on stilts, etc.

Sure, it’s really fun to dress up in costumes. Lord knows I relish Halloween critical mass in SF, or the chance for an 80’s hairspray spandex party with friends. But I don’t pretend to believe that wearing crazy costumes will help me convince anyone of anything, especially something so critical and polarizing as climate change. I think there’s 3 major chain-reaction problems with using street theater as a means to build a movement:

1. We look stupid
2. People feel alienated
3. It says, we’re different from you, therefore we’re against you

Looking Stupid

When was the last time you let a talking polar bear shift your views on a political issue? Maybe you buy your car insurance because of what a talking gecko tells you, but that’s a separate issue… The truth is, direct action street theater looks totally stupid to the vast majority of people who witness it, and it significantly undermines the credibility of the environmental movement.

A really valuable contrast is to look at the civil rights movement – did they dress up in crazy chicken costumes or walk around on stilts to get their message across? No. They wore suits and ties, professional dresses, and through their powerful imagery won the respect and sympathy of the American people for their issue and their human rights. When dignified black men and women were beaten and arrested on television – they were martyrs. When a human polar bear is handcuffed outside the White House, it’s just another crazy weirdo looking for trouble – no sympathy, no respect, no credibility. Is it really that hard to understand why conservative senators won’t listen to environmentalists? It’s because we paint ourselves as crazy!

Alienation

As a Berkeley student and environmentalist, I’ve participated in my share of protests that involved street theater. I can say, hands down, that every single bystander (someone who happened to come along the protest on their way to work, for instance) I witnessed at these protests felt utterly alienated from the cause. Not only alienated, but often scared, upset, and confused – like the female janitor I saw leaving the Citibank branch in Washington DC that Rainforest Action Network shut down over Powershift weekend.

She hurried along the outside of the building as the folks in gas masks and biohazard suits chanted “No New Coal” – a message that I’m sure was totally lost on her as she tried to escape the intense state of panic she was experiencing from the fact that her workplace being taken over by dozens of angry, costumed environmental activists. No sympathy was had by the cars that drove by either. Do the street theater folks actually expect average people that witness their antics to respond in support? At best street theater serves as entertainment, which might make a few people laugh, but it certainly doesn’t build the kind of legitimacy it takes to win political leverage.

Creating Visual Polarization

Ultimately, most people in America wouldn’t dress up publicly in an outlandish costume for any cause, even ones they truly care about. The fact that environmentalists do on a regular basis creates a line of division – it says: we’re different from you, we’re crazy, we’re against you. We’re going to get in your face, in a way that makes you uncomfortable, in a way that you yourself cannot relate to, and tell you to support our issue. It simply weirds people out.

The True Motive Behind Street Theater

I’m not naïve – I know the real reason behind protest street theater is to get media hits. It’s that simple. And in that sense – it’s effective. Reporters will certainly stand around all day and take pictures of stupid-looking environmentalists in weird costumes, and they will gladly publish these pictures en masse to further solidify the negative stereotypes of environmentalists in the media. I ask the proponents of street theater: Do you actually think street theater is effective in furthering our goals? Is it good to overload the American public with a barrage of alienating images that stereotype and discredit our movement? Should media hits, no matter how alienating, polarizing, and discrediting – be the central focus of our public outreach campaigns?

New Protest

If we’re really serious about solving the energy and climate crisis, then we need to be serious in our media tactics too. The powerful imagery of everyday Americans standing up for justice was what won the civil rights campaigns of the south, and we need to invoke that same compelling imagery today.

A vital lesson we can also take from the civil rights movement was the example of the freedom riders – whites who came to the south in solidarity with blacks and faced the same human rights abuses from southern government, which was subsequently televised and shocked the nation. Why were the freedom riders exceptionally effective in media? Because whites could relate to them – it took people like themselves standing up, facing physical abuse, and advocating for justice to move the sentiments of white communities who had less in common with blacks. To that end, as environmental organizers, we must strive to project ourselves as people that everyday Americans can relate to, not a bunch of stereotyped hippie radicals that people have come to despise.

Save it for the Afterparty

I don’t think a bunch of polar bear crazies are going to earn the credibility to win climate solutions in the U.S. Congress and in the U.N. – legitimate, professional climate advocates are. Let’s stop being our own worst media enemy and forgo the silly theater tactics for a credible, professional movement that more than just the most radical environmentalists can feel comfortable getting behind. Once we get substantial climate legislation passed in this country, we can bust out the polar bear costumes at the after-party.