Wow, James. This is exactly what I needed to read right now. Like the younger you, I have often felt cynical about public-facing (sometimes called "performative") gestures of solidarity. Trauma and exhaustion swirled together with a number of real-life experiences of people wearing BLM shirts, pink pussy hats, or human rights campaign stickers but not living up to the ideals of those symbols, and for a long time I felt that it was better not to broadcast one's morals at all. I was wrong, and my opinion on this has been changing very rapidly lately, because I've witnessed how much an outspoken and visible showing of support can turn the tide on so many issues, particularly Palestine.

I was walking home from a protest this week holding a poster with the Palestinian flag on it, and wearing a keffiyeh that I'd bought to support the last textile manufacturer in the West Bank. A man approached me and spoke to me in Arabic, assuming that because I supported the cause, I must be Arab like him. That's just how rare it has been to see white Americans in support of the Palestinian people. I did my best to answer him and thank him for the gesture, and on the rest of the walk home, his actions really stayed with me. I realized that by carrying symbols of the movement I was broadcasting to him and people like him that he wasn't alone, that the world cares about his people's struggle. I was also taking a tiny step to help normalize public concern about this genocide. Now instead of feeling embarrassed that I'm wearing a symbol of a movement that perhaps I don't "deserve," I feel proud to have this keffiyeh, and it gives me a sense of responsibility to keep showing up for a people just fighting to survive.

I had no idea about the history of the red ribbon and how it began to sweep the globe. Thank you for educating me on it, and for sharing with us all your own trajectory of growth. I think I've been locked into so many battles for so long that I've been unfairly mistrusting of too many of the people around me, but you're right, we need proud public allies more than ever. Now when I see someone in a t-shirt that says "protect trans kids" or a rainbow flag pin, I'll remember how many people feel safer thanks to such gestures -- and maybe I'll try to find it in my heart to thaw a little and let it make me feel safer, too.