Many social justice NGOs and advocacy groups have a mission and a message that we would like to see succeed, but not all of them do. Why is that? What makes some messages fly and others flop? This semester I have been studying a community advocacy group called ISAIAH for the answer. Here I offer a summary of my analysis with some tips that can be used by others.
ISAIAH is a multi-racial, democratic and nonpartisan congregation-based community organization in the state of Minnesota. It works closely in the regions of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and St. Cloud to promote racial and economic justice through leadership development and collective action. ISAIAH works on a range of equity issues including education, health, economy, and housing. They have won a variety of policy battles on these issues.
After researching ISAIAH’s work and consulting academic theory, I attribute its policy-changing success to an intentional and unique organizing methodology. I chose to focus in on one component of this methodology: strategic ideology, or how ISAIAH uses rhetoric to pose a challenge to the dominant belief system underlying public policy.
ISAIAH’s rhetorical strategy involves both addressing the ideology (a widely-held set of beliefs, values, and theories) working against its goals, and putting forward its own ideology. For example in its health equity work, ISAIAH describes the opposing ideology as one that views health as self-determined—individuals can attain good health simply by making the right choices. Race-based health disparities in this view are explained by the “bad genes” of those groups, or their “dysfunctional cultures.” ISAIAH’s own health ideology rejects this, saying that people are pre-disposed to be healthy or unhealthy based on race and economic status because of racial systems of privilege that make the tools for good health accessible to some and not others. ISAIAH adds that these systems are in our power to change, and it is our responsibility to change them.
Part of the reason ideologies hold so much power is that they often draw upon myth. Myths may draw power from true stories or from credible sources, but a myth is a belief that is false or at least cannot be proven true, often because it is based on an ideal. For example, the myth of the American Dream is an ideal that can never be truly reached, but is nonetheless widely regarded as true. Thus myths make a powerful backdrop for ideologies because they are unquestioned and often unrecognized as even being present.
It is for this reason that ISAIAH also names the myth behind the opposing ideology: the myth of scarcity, or the fear-based idea that there is not enough wealth to go around, and therefore every person must fend for him or herself, even at the expense of disadvantaged groups within society. ISAIAH offers an opposing view: shared abundance—the idea that ensuring the health of all people will make a stronger state and nation. We have a hopeful future if we only work together.
Naming the two ideologies and the ideas that support them seems like a simple act, but it is actually an unusual one. Typically ideology functions to back an argument about, for example, whether the state should provide healthcare, but the ideology is usually not explicitly named, and neither are the beliefs that support it. When ISAIAH names and describes these two stories, people are faced with a choice—both cannot be true. People must admit that they agree with an ugly story (competition, fear, claims about “bad racial cultures and genes”) or embrace ISAIAH’s viewpoint, one of community and hope. Most importantly, ISAIAH’s viewpoint comes with some imperatives articulated in its ideology: we have the power to change public policy and the responsibility to do so.
In conclusion, there are three techniques in ISAIAH’s rhetorical strategy that can be generalized to other advocacy groups:
1) Set up a dichotomy that reveals underlying beliefs. When ISAIAH articulates the two opposing ideologies and myths, it forces people to make a choice and allows them to see clearly what they are choosing between.
2) Appeal to your audience. When ISAIAH rejects the myth of fear of scarcity and incorporates ideas of hope and community effort towards a common goal, it draws heavily upon existing values that resonate with the public.
3) Make a call to action. When ISAIAH follows its ideology with the statement that society has the ability and responsibility to change systems disadvantaging non-whites, it ties the belief system the public will hopefully choose to what it must do if it chooses it.
If you would like to read more about ISAIAH, visit their website at http://isaiah-mn.org/.