Written by gabrielle on December 1, 2021

How Reputation Gets In The Way of Reparations

The Battle For Hearts And Minds To Achieve A Better World.

London is a city that can be comfortably prosecuted as guilty for its crimes against the environment. The concrete landscape is impressive, filled with the old and new. An efficient transportation system runs like streams below but above, lies a lack of bike lanes and a daily blockade of noisy vehicles. Beautiful widespread national parks filled with plants and wildlife lay a pretty pattern of greens on a satellite view, but at night we see no stars as a cluster of retail stores lights beam ceaselessly for 24 hours, 365 days a year. London has a governing body that promises a ‘Greener Britain’ as seen at the recent COP26 conference but only by word of mouth do they make these promises; their direct actions play a different tune: they sign bills for the construction of new oil fields and coal mines and continue to dump British waste abroad. Whilst it is evident that London and the UK on whole have not made nearly enough progress for the bettering of the Earth; particularly for such a developed country, it is home to many climate change organizations. One of them is ‘Extinction Rebellion’ (XR) which in recent times has been deemed ‘Newsworthy’ by the British media. Whilst some may say all publicity is good publicity the organization is less known for its efforts to pressure the government to make changes but instead for the headbutting with members of the public.

This passing month Extinction Rebellions’ biggest focus point has been attending the COP26 conference. In preparation for the event, they had released their November Newsletter which expressed concerns about the sustainability of the conference itself:

“Witness the Japanese decision to fly an empty Boeing 777 6,000 miles to check out airport arrangements in Glasgow.”

This emphasizes the mistrust and critique climate organizations have for governmental efforts, Extinction Rebellion takes this a step further as they promote “non-violent public disruption.”

A recent display was the disruption of a train during rush hour at Canning Town as reported by the Guardian. A few members had climbed on top and/or glued themselves to the train which enraged many commuters who attempted to travel to work. In a video posted to Twitter, we see one XR member was being pulled off the train as he began to lose his footing due he aggressively kicked one of the commuters in retaliation. And so when they had finally been dragged off the train and into the crowd, they were attacked by a few commuters whilst others attempted to protect him. In the end, the event led to 8 people’s arrests, and this became a PR crisis for Extinction Rebellion. The organization released a statement stating that whilst they believe in public disruption, they have always made it a point for the acts of protest to not be violent and they apologized for the member’s actions whilst also supporting him by stating it was an act of defence. At the same time, the group thought it important to state that this was solely organized amongst the few members who were at the location of the scene and did not reflect the organization as a whole. They also stated their disappointment that this situation was deemed ‘Newsworthy’.

CNBC reports an even more recent and expansive event where XR had blockaded 13 Amazon warehouses across the UK on Black Friday. The group had stated that these protests are a way for people to take actions that the government should be taking, to lead by example in a way. Amazon responded by reassuring that they are constantly innovating and investing in efforts to be as sustainable as possible. CNBC’s positioning is apparent as the report ends by stating that Amazon has provided 10,000 permanent employment for people in the UK. Once again, the perspective shown to the working people is that XR’s actions are of disadvantage for them.

On British popular culture, Instagram pages like ‘ImJustBait’ and ‘Urbantv’ have posted multiple videos submitted by ordinary people of roadblocks created by Extinction Rebellion in local areas in the UK. Most videos show one or two XR members sitting crossed legged on the street with their hands glued to the concrete roads so that they are unable to be removed. The reaction of the public in the videos tends to be frustration and anger with even some clips showing individuals harassing XR members by squirting blue ink onto their faces, the members sit statically unable to defend against these circumstances. Whilst the audiences on social media are slightly more sympathetic toward these videos where XR members are harassed for the majority they will claim that it was deserved due to the group’s recent actions hence we see that the online public share similar frustrations with the members of the public seen in the videos.

Extinction Rebellion has fallen into the trap of action with no cause and this has had greater consequences than just a poor public image. A year ago, the Guardian reported that XR has been classified officially by the anti-terrorism police division as a terrorist group. Their name stood with a Neo-Nazi group and a pro-terrorist Islamic group on the list. Whilst displays of public disturbance have played as a strength to promote change by people in the past those examples had inclusiveness that XR seemed to lack, this has allowed for the media to paint them in a bad light and ultimately allow the government to continue with their lack of efforts.

Without the hearts and minds there are no victories.

How Reputation Gets In The Way of Reparations

The Battle For Hearts And Minds To Achieve A Better World.

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