For many years, social activists and academics have pontificated on the role that anger plays in the pursuit of social justice. Is it possible that until injustice leads to an escalation of anger, the status quo will be maintained? Do we really have to get angry to be in a position to make a difference? And once we are fired up and ready to make a difference, is it the people with the most anger who can make the greatest impact?
There are no absolute answers to these questions. However, it is clear that anger has its place in the process of social change.
In honor of World AIDS Day, marked on December 1 each year, I wanted to share some words from an activist who was energized by his anger and was able to make a difference. Often, activists hide their anger for fear that it may negatively affect the outcomes they are trying desperately to achieve. But sometimes, anger cannot be hidden – and perhaps it shouldn’t be.
Charles “Chuck” Selber, a Jewish man from Shreveport, Louisiana, didn’t keep his anger inside. He wrote a play, countless letters, and newspaper articles as he repeatedly tried to explain—never defend—the anger that he embodied as an AIDS activist in the 1980s. Chuck was one of three individuals who founded ACT-UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power). In a letter Chuck wrote to his dad in 1990, he stated “ACT-UP has succeeded because of people who are angry and because of people who get mad.”
In the 1980s there was no shortage of reasons for someone living with HIV/AIDS to be angry. Chuck’s mom, Flo Selber, explained to me that in all of Shreveport, there was only one pharmacy that sold AZT (then the only “cocktail” for treating HIV/AIDS). Dentists would not take patients with AIDS. Their ophthalmologist would only see Chuck after office hours, when other patients wouldn’t know about it. Regarding medicine, Chuck wrote “We won’t allow toxic poisons into our community. We don’t want gangs or drug pushers or neo-Nazis in Shreveport. Why don’t we want life-saving medicine?”
Chuck Selber passed away December 22, 1991 at the young age of 43. One of the many obituaries published at the time of his death provides a glimpse of the reach Chuck had during his short life: “There is hardly an effort in this community involving AIDS victims that did not bear the imprint of Mr. Selber’s activism.”
Anger, it seems, was one of the tools he used to raise awareness and find his voice. In honor of World AIDS Day, and with permission from Chuck’s mother, Flo Selber, we are going to share two more blog posts with excerpts from Chuck’s play, In Defense of the Committee.
Though World AIDS Day is today, throughout the month of December this social justice topic will be explored deeply, through Chuck’s words and legacy of righteous indignation at a world not willing to grant him the help and dignity he deserved.
On World AIDS Day, how is your community acknowledging the impact AIDS continues to have on the world? Are there specific injustices that make you angry, and if so, how do you channel your anger?
