A trio of women are seated at a long rectangular table speaking of social issues that range from feminism and equal pay to racism and the black male identity. The room is large and spacious and full of conversation. She is sitting amongst them.
She is of African American descent, born and raised in East Orange, New Jersey. Her perspective on many of the social issues that concern her are built on the basis of the diversity of her home state because many different kinds of people, from all walks of life, occupy some of the same spaces in which she does.
Photo courtesy of Rae Faith Photography
She is a feminist. She is an activist. She is a writer and producer. She is Amaris Mitchell.
She’s always felt the urge to speak for those who couldn’t. Her roots are buried in the soil of Christianity and so coming up, she was always encouraged to use her platform for others and serve her community.
“I know what it means to be left out.” she says. “I wanted to amplify their voices and speak for those who couldn’t.”
Maybe this same empathy is what led her to coproduce M or F, a documentary in which speaks on the ins and outs of gender identity within a heteronormative patriarchal society. The film expounds on the struggles of being non-binary or non-gender conforming within the family dynamic, the workplace, within the fashion industry and religion.
“I’ve always challenged my role as a girl. I challenged the clothes I had to wear to church, whether I liked guys holding doors open for me or if I wanted to hold it open for them or whether or not play fighting with boys was cute or fun.” she says. “Then transitioning from highschool to college, I saw a lot of online discussion about queerness, transness and gender being another social construct. I then dated someone who is nonbinary that put me on to the term and saw strength and solace in being androgynous or neither boy nor girl, just yourself. Around that time, I took a Documentary Style film class and a friend of mine, James pitched to do a film about gender and people of a marginalized gender in Philadelphia. He pointed out learning from posts on Tumblr about all these genders that we didn’t know about and that resonated with me. I wanted to produce or direct a film on Food Deserts in Philadelphia but my pitch got vetoed by the rest of the class and James’ gender idea was my next pic.”
"My activism comes
in at the margins
of the things I create."
She uses documentary film to speak about some of the issues that plague our society.
“My activism comes in at the margins of the things I create. I really appreciate TV and film, creative arts and I love to give commentary on it.” she says. “I just feel like when you’re continually going at something, you can use yourself as an advocate for that activism… My Goal is to share stories, to tell my own stories and share the stories of people around me.”
Mitchell’s activism doesn’t stop there. She extends her plight to social media as a way to spread her message and see that there is a larger issue in regards to the way in which the public responds to content of political and social advocacy and that “getting people to care” is probably the hardest part of activism in this century for that reason.
“I might post something about ‘black girl magic’ and everyone’s like ‘yes yes yes yes yes 163 likes,’ and then I post something about a palestinian girl that was arrested and is being held captive and other palestinian children that are being tried and kept in militarized prisons with their families; 7 likes and I have a good 1,000 followers.” she says. “So that makes you think, do people not care about it? Do people not know about it? Was it a bad time in the day? What can I do to make people have the same kind of response?”
In her latest post on instagram, she regrams a post that speaks about the trafficking and migrant exploitation that goes into the food industry. A reality in which is hard to face. But as impactful and informative as it is, it only got 3 likes.
Why is this?
“But I also think that when we think about techniques that we have with social media, I dont think it’s always us … So with instagram, you have different kinds of algorithms. It might not be that people don’t give a fuck about people in palestine or that they dont know whats going on or that they didn’t want to read it, maybe the algorithms were a certain way.”
Facebook and Instagram are known for their algorithms. AJ Agrawal of Forbes says that “…the algorithms for Facebook are all about only showing people the content that’s seen as relevant to them.”
Back in March of 2016, Instagram announced their shift to an algorithm oriented system for their user interface in order to insure that “…you won’t miss your favorite band’s video after the concert, even if it took place across the world in a different time zone…” and that “The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post.”
But for Mitchell, this meant something very different.
“There are people that control what other people get to see so there is only but so much that you can do to get your message out there.”
There is still activism or advocacy present online, despite of the technical side of social media.
“What’s great is that people are continuing to share shit, the consciousness is continuing to rise. People are still arguing in the comments but kind of gaining a sort of understanding because there are more people who are coming out with their own lessons online about certain things, and more people are listening and learning…” she says.
Social Media has provided a forum and therefore a direct line to public officials in prower. Mitchell describes activism on social media as a game of telephone. Those who have larger platforms are able to speak for those who have little, and against any form of tyranny.
People are critiquing their state legislators online, and they are actually getting back to them online. Hate mail is a thing of the past and “by that happening progression can happen sooner.” she says. But overall, social media and the internet should not be treated as soul sources for change. With Net Neutrality, the government has given private companies the ability to regulate the way we use the internet.
“We can’t only rely on social media” she says “because if something really happens, and we’re trying to communicate with each other the government could just hit the lights and shut everything off.”
“What’s next?” She says “Continuing to post online about stories that aren’t gaining much traction on my TL, making moves to make movies and TV for Black and poor, working class communities, connecting and building with folks in Newark, East Orange, on the east coast and beyond. I’m currently in post-production for a short film I wrote and Directed, An Uber Ride, featured in a political-erotica reading series, TONGUE and collaborating with a friend on creating community workshops on home owning and combating gentrification.”
Mitchell is an advocate for change within her community. Social media and technology in general had changed the way we view activism, but only in moderation and with dignity do we use it for good.