On MLK Day, activism, and pressure to do work
Originally published on Toward Decolonizing Physics
Today, I am doing something that only in America people consider radical: not working on a (for me, paid) federal holiday! Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a holiday in honor of the outspoken civil rights activist known in his day for his mobilization against racial and economic oppression. King was assassinated in 1968 at the height of his activism, and generations of activists since have kept his fiery vision alive in the face of a concerted effort to whitewash his legacy.
Dr. King’s legacy is a key moment in American and global civil rights history that should never be forgotten. I could write at length about Dr. King’s legacy, but I’ll let his words speak for themselves.
Instead, today I am going to write about why I am choosing not to engage in research activities today on MLK Day, and what the implications are for understanding systems of racial and economic subjugation in the US today. After all, it is perhaps only in America that physicists (and workers across the country) would opt to work on a paid holiday rather than take the day to honor a Black civil rights activist!
Overworking and Guilt
Certainly, some Americans – those who do not get a paid holiday from their employers or who work in retail, for instance – have no choice but to work today. I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about the countless people I know (particularly in physics) who have a paid holiday today, but refuse to take it. This includes many of us graduate students who are paid a monthly research stipend and choose how much to work based on that.
Often, I find, this drive to work is based on fear. Fear that people will be seen as lazy in the eyes of peers or PI’s. Fear that work will accumulate unchecked (often motivated by others who assign work in spite of the holiday). Fear that taking one day off will jeopardize graduating on time, even though it’s day-to-day productivity (and not the actions of one day) that define this.
But even more than fear, the need to work seems to be driven by guilt. Guilt that we’re getting paid but not working. Guilt that data is awaiting being taken if we just turned on the experiment. Guilt that we place ourselves over capitalism.
Certainly, some people may work today because they enjoy working. If that’s you, more power to you (although I encourage you to interrogate why). Some of us work today because of workaholism – we don’t know another way. But for many of us, it’s because American capitalism has filled us with fear and guilt about not working. It isn’t the human condition to work this many hours, it’s the capitalism condition.
The Pressure to Be “Doing Physics”
Of course, sitting idly in front of the TV is hardly the way to honor the legacy of a civil rights activist (especially if you’re white like me). A holiday like MLK Day demands using the day off to fight for justice. Whether it’s through writing, marching, self-education, or community empowerment through service, there’s no shortage of ways to honor Dr. King’s legacy today that help bring about the vision of justice his words articulate. That’s why I have opted to take today to engage in writing and self-education.
In progressive departments, there is at least some support for doing these activities outside of work, as long as doing so doesn’t get in the way of education. After all, convincing white moderates to alleviate guilt by fighting for civil rights in their free time (and then taking away said free time) is a classic tactic to quash social movements. The deeper stigma lies in attempting to integrate such activities into day-to-day life as a researcher, as the June 2020 Strike for Black Lives (which no one else in my lab was willing to take part in!) tried to teach us to do.
In physics, the pressure to work extends to the pressure to be “doing physics.” There is a pressure not just to “do physics” in the laboratory, but on weekends and any break (whether that’s answering physics-related emails sent by a PI at 2:00am Friday night or reading the Arxiv Sunday morning). Implicit in “doing physics” is what it isn’t: departmental activism, student organizing, anti-racist self-education, taking non-physics courses to become more well-rounded, or any number of other activities that are more or less necessary for a marginalized physicist’s well-being or for social change.
If we wish to make any sort of contribution toward decolonizing physics, we can’t just do it in our free time. Capitalism will grow our other commitments until activism gets shunned out. Instead, we must be intentional about pushing back against capitalist ideas of “work,” and making anti-racism and anti-oppressive action a visible and valued part of our work as physicists.
Moving Beyond MLK Day
For physicists who are scared to take our first steps, taking a day off on MLK Day or #Strike4BlackLives for self-education or to take part in a protest is an ideal and important first step. For many of us – from pre-tenured faculty to graduate researchers dependent on a recommendation letter – it might be the best we can do. But I encourage us to dream bigger, especially those of us (read: white people) with less to lose.
What does it look like to be a physicist who makes the pursuit of justice as important as the pursuit of knowledge? I can’t say for you, but I can describe the visible changes I have made in my life as a graduate student over the past few years. I take the time to create and maintain this blog, though few at my workplace know about my writing or other activism outside the department. However, I do intentionally block out time during my workday for anti-racism action through committees and a reading group, and do not hesitate to state this when scheduling meetings or other events. I also make a point of enrolling in courses outside my own department (e.g. in ethnic studies) for the purpose of escaping the bubble that is physics and building the skills I need to make a difference through my career.
