Raising Awareness

September seems to be a month that is particularly prone to various “awareness” observances. Among them are the following:

• Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
• Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month
• Cancer Awareness Month
• Human Trafficking Awareness Month
• Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
• Migraine Awareness Week (Sept 6th – 12th)
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Awareness Day (Sept 9th)
• Worldwide Lymphoma Awareness Day (Sept 15th)
• Prostate Cancer Awareness Week (Sept 21st – 27th)
• Deaf Awareness Week (Sept 21st – 27th)
• National Adult Immunization Awareness Week (Sept 21st – 27th)
• National Rehabilitation Awareness Week (Sept 21st – 27th)
• Ataxia Awareness Day (Sept 25th)
• Mental Illness Awareness Week (Sept 30th – Oct 6th)

This is just a sampling, and it’s only one month. It seems with each passing year we add on more and more “awareness” observations. I think we’re well beyond the saturation point of effectiveness. I’m reminded of the Stuff White People Like entry on this topic, from which I’ll quote liberally:

An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly believe that all of the world’s problems can be solved through “awareness.” Meaning the process of making other people aware of problems, and then magically someone else like the government will fix it.

This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges. Because, the only challenge of raising awareness is people not being aware. In a worst case scenario, if you fail someone doesn’t know about the problem. End of story.

What makes this even more appealing for white people is that you can raise “awareness” through expensive dinners, parties, marathons, selling t-shirts, fashion shows, concerts, eating at restaurants and bracelets. In other words, white people just have to keep doing stuff they like, EXCEPT now they can feel better about making a difference.

Raising awareness is also awesome because once you raise awareness to an acceptable, aribtrary level, you can just back off and say “Bam! did my part. Now it’s your turn. Fix it.”

So to summarize – you get all the benefits of helping (self satisfaction, telling other people) but no need for difficult decisions or the ensuing criticism (how do you criticize awareness?). Once again, white people find a way to score that sweet double victory.

Popular things to be aware of: The Environment, Diseases like Cancer and AIDS, Africa, Poverty, Anorexia, Homophobia, Midde School Field Hockey/Lacrosse teams, Drug Rehab, and political prisoners.