by John M. Simpson.<\/p>\n
A study<\/a> was published recently in Social Movement Studies<\/em> entitled \u201cNobody\u2019s paying me to cry:\u00a0 the causes of activist burnout in United States animal rights activists.\u201d\u00a0 The authors concluded that, while many factors play a role, racist and sexist treatment of individuals within animal rights groups also contributed to what the authors described as \u201cburnout:\u201d \u00a0\u201cwhen people once deeply embedded in movements \u2013 people who intended to remain engaged \u2013 are forced to disengage due to the stress impacts of participation.\u201d<\/p>\n The study used a phenomenological approach.\u00a0 The authors interviewed 17 activists, which included salaried employees of animal rights organizations and volunteers.\u00a0 The criteria for being interviewed included a self-declaration that the particular activist was worn out to the point of no longer being effectively engaged in the activist\u2019s work. \u00a0The interviewees reflected the following demographics:\u00a0\u00a0ages ranging from 31 to 66, 13 females, 4 males, 5 persons of color and 12 whites.<\/p>\n The study revealed three overall causes of burnout: \u00a0(i) intrinsic motivational (i.e.<\/em>, issues specific to the individual involved); (ii) organization and movement culture; and (iii) in-fighting and marginalization among the activists themselves.<\/p>\n One of the negative items in the second category was what the authors termed a \u201cculture of martyrdom\u201d \u2013 whereby animals come first over any personal problems experienced by individual activists.\u00a0 One interviewee described it as an \u201cecosystem \u2026 of anti-compassion.\u201d\u00a0 If activists felt exhausted from the work, they were labeled \u201cweak.\u201d\u00a0 As one put it, \u201c\u2018[n]obody\u2019s paying me to cry, so soldier on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Of particular note in the category of treatment by other activists was the study\u2019s finding that many of those interviewed had grown \u201cexhausted and hopeless coping with oppression and bias within the movement.\u201d\u00a0 Eight of the thirteen women in the study attributed their burnout in part to the sexism they experienced from men in the animal rights movement. \u00a0As the authors described it:<\/p>\n Sam stated she was \u201ctreated kind of like a charming but benign presence\u201d who was often \u201cspoken over\u201d while male activists took credit for her ideas.\u00a0 For others the sexism was more implicit and arose, in Karyn\u2019s words, out of a \u201cboy\u2019s club,\u201d where men instituted a \u201cbro culture\u201d built around language that \u201cdoes not translate at all to women.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The minority interviewees were blunter still:<\/p>\n [R]acial discrimination and bias were, in Laura\u2019s words, \u201ca huge problem.\u201d\u00a0 All attributed their burnout in part to experiencing or witnessing racism within the movement.\u00a0\u00a0 Kate called racism \u201ca primary cause of my burnout\u201d and described the emotional price she paid as a woman of color in the movement.\u00a0 In one incident she had to expend energy challenging an [animal rights] organization after it hired a white woman who \u201chad been taking a racist position on the Black Lives Matter movement\u201d as a speaker for an event.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Activists of color also reported that it is \u201c\u2019generally \u2026 a pretty white movement, especially in terms of who gets visibility.\u2019\u201d The activists of color had not all experienced blatant discrimination, but \u201cthe slow grind of implicit racial bias and erasure elevated their burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n The results of this study come at an interesting time, not only in light of the #MeToo movement, but also how those themes have affected the animal rights sector.\u00a0 Last year, Wayne Pacelle, the Chief Executive Officer of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) \u2013 by revenue, probably the largest animal rights organization in the United States \u2013 resigned <\/a>his position when three HSUS employees accused him of sexual harassment. \u00a0After the allegations surfaced, the HSUS Board voted to retain Pacelle.\u00a0 However, as reported<\/a>, Pacelle ultimately resigned after at least one Board member quit in protest.\u00a0 HSUS appointed a new CEO and publicly stated that it was embarking upon a \u201creconciliation\u201d<\/a> process with its employees, but it has apparently yet to announce the results of that process.\u00a0 Even with the changes, some donors were reportedly<\/a> outraged by HSUS’ actions.\u00a0 Whether this will actually translate into lower revenue to HSUS from donors remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by John M. Simpson. A study was published recently in Social Movement Studies entitled \u201cNobody\u2019s paying me to cry:\u00a0 the causes of activist burnout in United States animal rights activists.\u201d\u00a0 The authors concluded that, while many factors play a role, racist and sexist treatment of individuals within animal rights groups also contributed to what the … <\/p>\n Continue reading “Study Shows Racism and Sexism Contribute to Animal Activist \u201cBurnout\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[334,336,21,117,332,5,335,333],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-metoo","tag-activist-burnout","tag-animal-rights","tag-hsus","tag-humane-society-of-the-united-states","tag-john-simpson","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-wayne-pacelle"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Simpson","first_name":"John M.","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/johnmsimpson.html","description":"Read John's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}