HONY Humanizing Political Conflicts
Most experiences with Humans of New York (HONY) are something like scrolling down your Facebook newsfeed and seeing a friend from high school “like” a picture about a couple whose fiftyyear marriage started out as a drunken bet at a friend’s wedding. These types of endearing, everyday posts have united 16 million followers over the universal joys and sorrows of the human experience.
However, Brandon Stanton, owner of the website, has expanded his posts into the political realm—becoming a true agent of social change, and arguably doing better than any of our current politicians. Despite the more grave subject matter, like the uncertain future of refugees moving to America, the universality of being human is not lost in these posts. In fact, it is this very constant that has made them even more effective. By stripping away the media’s negative stereotypes of current conflicts, we are left with the honesty of pregnant mothers, scared children, and lonely fathers. Headlines are humanized and we find ourselves in their otherwise foreign stories. This is how our appointed “enemies” become our friends deserving of help.
In early December, Stanton posted a collection of his interviews with eleven Syrian refugees applying for resettlement in America. One striking story was that of Aya, a refugee whose application had been denied for “securityrelated reasons.” An onslaught of welcoming comments flooded her pictures, including this poignant one: “A month ago, I was against refugees coming to America. HONY has singlehandedly broken down that so-verywrong viewpoint.” Stanton then organized an online petition to President Obama to “Bring Aya to America,” which has reached two-thirds of its desired 1.5 million signatures. In addition, he fundraised $754,000 of a $100,000 goal, which will be evenly divided amongst the eleven families to help cushion their arrival. The fundraising efforts, put together by more than 18,000 people, reveal a selfless goodwill that seems like a rarity, but could become a norm if more such opportunities were presented.
One could argue that the Facebook comments and fundraising and petitioning efforts are nothing more than window-shopping activism: a quick, effortless way to feel that you have done your part to fix a trendy problem. But what Stanton has provided—a safe, direct way to help refugees—is more than what we can say for some of our trusted government officials, especially in a harsh political climate where a House bill recently attempted to suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees. Whatever the contributors’ motivations might be, no one can deny that tangible, effective change is being made thanks to Stanton. Furthermore, his actions have created a domino effect of individual efforts to help others. For instance, upon reading Stanton’s story about a refugee father with cancer, one Michigan resident took it upon himself to raise $12,000 to help with his medical bills.
Apart from providing tangible assistance, Stanton’s posts have accomplished the arguably harder job of changing people’s perspectives—perspectives informed by stubborn personal reservations and onslaughts of negative media stories. This past summer he traveled to Pakistan where he showed, for example, the honest happiness of a man dancing to songs he requested on the radio. Pakistanis expressed deep gratitude towards Stanton. One commented, “You have done so so much for my people… our nation has been toppling over itself for more than a decade now but through that, we have our share of happiness which the media fails to show.” They were not the only thankful ones. One American wrote, “It seems like the only pictures we see of Pakistan are a war torn Pakistan. I’m surprised that everything looks so normal in this picture… Thank You Brandon for showing us the reality of these countries.” Here, with a simple picture and caption, Stanton had successfully removed the tight grip U.S. media has paid billions to fasten. In a paradoxical world where globalization is occurring at the same time that discriminatory barriers are being put up, HONY is a testament to the power the internet can hold if harnessed for the most basic unit of all: human compassion.
In a frightening landscape where president hopefuls like Ben Carson can openly equate Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs,” or Donald Trump can proudly promise to mandate Muslims to carry special identification cards that note their faith, it has become apparent that respect for humanity is disappearing in politics. Regardless of HONY’s social media medium or its self-contained rosy field of comments, its humanization of political conflicts is a welcome deviation from day after day of detached, pessimistic headlines. HONY is a sign of what could be possible if we found ourselves in the shoes of the people we pit ourselves against. It is no surprise, then, that Stanton’s followers are nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize.