Definitions
According to Deepa Iyer, people’s roles in social change movements are often shaped by these factors, allowing individuals to find roles based on their unique abilities and experiences.
What are strengths, experiences, and the specific needs of the moment?
This genocide, led by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot, took place in Cambodia between April 17, 1975, and January 7, 1979.
What is the Cambodian Genocide?
This role focuses on rapid response and mobilization during times of crisis, often coordinating resources and networks.
What is a frontline responder?
This term describes a system where economic inequality, institutional racism, and mass incarceration intersect to oppress marginalized communities.
What is racial capitalism?
What are some ways that we as a society play different roles in pursuit of equity, liberation, inclusion, and justice?
As a society, we contribute to equity, liberation, inclusion, and justice by advocating for policy changes, supporting marginalized communities, and challenging discriminatory systems. Individuals also play roles through education, activism, allyship, and creating inclusive spaces in everyday life.
This is a key question that Deepa Iyer encourages individuals to reflect on when determining the role they feel most connected to in social change efforts.
What role(s) do I feel comfortable and natural playing, and why?
This leader, serving as Prime Minister of Cambodia, led the Khmer Rouge regime responsible for the genocide.
Who is Pol Pot?
These individuals tend to trauma caused by systems like white supremacy and colonialism, helping communities heal.
What are healers?
In response to systemic neglect and violence, young Asians in Suong’s community formed these for mutual protection and support.
What are gangs?
What were the causes and consequences of the Cambodian Genocide, and how did Cold War ideologies influence the international response (or lack thereof)?
The Cambodian Genocide was caused by the Khmer Rouge regime’s radical communist ideology, aiming to create an agrarian utopia by eliminating perceived enemies, including intellectuals and ethnic minorities. Cold War ideologies, like the Domino Theory, led Western powers to focus more on containing communism than addressing human rights abuses, delaying global intervention.
While individuals may naturally gravitate towards specific roles, they may often be asked by others to step into this role, reflecting an external expectation or need.
What role(s) am I often asked to step into by others?
This Cold War theory claimed that if one country fell to communism, neighboring nations would follow, influencing U.S. military actions in Southeast Asia.
What is the Domino Theory?
This role channels the past and present through art and storytelling to inspire and inform social change.
What is a community storyteller or artist?
This term refers to the way some communities shield youth from societal harm when institutions fail them.
What is community protection or grassroots support?
How did the roles people played during and after violent oppression (e.g., genocide, systemic racism) reflect broader movements for healing, justice, and resistance?
People assumed different roles such as healers, caregivers, and disruptors. For instance, in oppressed communities like Suong’s, youth formed gangs for mutual protection when institutions failed them—acting as grassroots responders and protectors. Others became storytellers or organizers to rebuild and resist the systems that caused harm.
Deepa Iyer encourages individuals to consider this when reflecting on their roles in social change, to understand the personal impact their actions have on their well-being.
What is the impact of these roles on me physically, energetically, emotionally, and spiritually?
This ideology, seen as a major threat to Western democratic capitalism, motivated the U.S. to justify interventions like the Vietnam War.
What is Communism?
People in this role bridge divides with compassion and patience, fostering understanding across differences.
What are bridge builders?
Despite global condemnation, this country continues to receive U.S. financial aid while committing human rights violations in Gaza.
What is Israel?
What does the “Domino Theory” tell us about the U.S. approach to foreign policy during the Cold War, and how might that thinking still influence decisions today?
The Domino Theory shows how U.S. policy was driven by fear of communism spreading, which justified aggressive interventions like the Vietnam War. This mindset prioritized ideological control over local sovereignty, and echoes of it can be seen in current geopolitical decisions driven by fear of instability or perceived ideological threats.
This idea from Deepa Iyer suggests that not everyone has to fit into a predetermined role in social movements; rather, roles are fluid and evolve based on individual growth and context.
What is individuality or the flexibility of roles in social change?
This 1965 military action, justified by fears of Communist expansion, included excessive bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia and escalated U.S. involvement in the region.
What is the U.S. invasion of Vietnam?
This role imagines and articulates a clear, hopeful future that guides movements even during times of uncertainty.
What is a visionary?
This accusation arises from the U.S. continuing to fund and support a nation involved in large-scale violence against a civilian population.
What is being actively responsible for genocide?
According to Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem, why is it important that different people and organizations take on different roles in justice movements?
Social change is sustainable and effective when roles like visionaries, bridge-builders, caregivers, and disruptors are balanced. No one person or group can do everything. Each role supports the others, creating a healthy ecosystem that adapts to challenges while fostering accountability, inclusion, and resilience.