In which I argue we should be less stymied by fear of “virtue signaling” and more worried about not doing enough to assert, model, celebrate just and caring choices.

Brandon and I are starting some Writing Challenge! sessions Brandon dreamed up, where we spend an hour using some prompt that makes us experiment with writing method and/or form/outcome, and commit to usually publishing something at the end. Today’s our first, and we’re using a card drawn from Brian Eno’s “Oblique Strategies” prompt card deck to shape what we write. The chosen card says “What mistakes did you make last time?”

Writing Challenge Plan:

Hourlong, in the grad office with door closed (folks can join the challenge process, but this way we’re not interrupted with unrelated things, given we’re on a tight schedule for the hour).

  • 10min prep: speak Brandon’s affirmations; decide whether we each select a card, or share the same card, from the deck; set up YAML for blog post so it’s ready to go
  • 25min: writing
  • 5min: finalize writing such that you’re ready to push it live
  • 10min: wrap = push writing live, celebrate, share on social media
  • (Ends after 50min for bio break, or has padding for if we start a few minutes late)

“What mistakes did you make last time?”

I’m trying to excise “virtue signaling” from my brain, as a too-finely-meshed filter on what I say. In a week where an Executive Order on WhiteHouse.gov pivoted to a new and deadly register of transphobic rhetoric (very quick summary here), it is more urgent than ever that we assert constantly, publicly, confidently the rights and dignity of friends and fellow humans most under attack and most harmed. I have repeatedly made the mistake of being too afraid I was “virtue signaling”, or overly worrying about legit concerns that still shouldn’t act as barriers (e.g. demanding cookies for doing something you should just do without applause, because it’s right).

It’s mattered to hear what others care about, to see them model that in words and actions. When the Scholars’ Lab has gotten pushback over some explicit focus on social justice, reparative resource decisions, or even just webpage language, it’s mattered that we could point to the digital humanities org’s explicit statement that the sociopolitical is inextricable from scholarship, and that positive social change* is inherently part of scholarly work. (* As a colleague pointed out recently, I’m hoping we can change that ACH wording to be even more explicit, e.g. using the unmistakable phrase “social justice” rather than the ambiguous, could be used negatively “social change”.) I regularly hear from folks at other institutions that Scholars’ Lab being vocal about social justice + scholarship has mattered in what it occurs to them they can do or say, or in being able to do so safely, or encourage their institutions to do better. I think of the small ways I’ve recently seen people suggest we do something less just, to avoid something that isn’t actually worth that choice—like not showing 3D VR demos of datasets related to the history of slavery when the governor might be visiting, or not mentioning social justice is core to what the lab does in a job ad meant to hire someone who’d be working directly with the lab in case it made the Provost slow or reject the ad getting approved. More reminders of what matters, why, that others are doing this work can help in these small moments when we have a choice.

I can’t know who cares if we don’t say. There are parts of my beliefs and being that I don’t bring fully to work. I don’t mean the ones that work doesn’t get to have; I mean things I’m not sure I can bring without pushback that I don’t want to deal with, ideas that are not widespreadly adopted yet like prison and police abolition, the power and real possibility of transformational justice, a real understanding of anarchism as approaches to empowering, collective-focused, no-unneeded hierarchies work. A few years ago, we were going around the table giving introductions to ourselves at the start of our yearly Praxis Program grad cohort teaching; one of the fellows mentioned their work as an abolitionist, and it occurred to me that no one in the lab had any way of knowing that I also believe in abolition. It’s part of who I am, and other folks don’t know to ask me questions about it if they don’t know it’s something I’m interested in; fellow abolitionists don’t know they have a potential ally.

“Virtue signaling” seems fine as a term used to encourage that we not only speak, but also act; that we don’t demand cookies to not be evil. I just don’t want it to keep functioning the way it’s been for me, as a mental stop telling me not to testify. Speaking up can feel hard, despite privilege. Doing it in tiny ways more often seems to help me build that muscle and better see my comparative safety. One such practice is how I find “we don’t do that here” powerful and easy to grab words in the moment; as is following up on any offered excuses with “nevertheless, we don’t do that here”.

I’m not claiming I’m particularly good at this. But I want to be talking about it more for learning, accountability. It feels urgent I learn to speak and ct more when privilege makes it safe (if not comfortable—differentiating between fear and discomfort is also key to just choices). We’re going to need to build ability to speak and act when it isn’t safe too, and that ability starts getting ready yesterday, or at least from this moment.

Ryan Cordell wrote on Bluesky: “We’ve lost the plot with “virtue signaling”—the initial impulse was to call out entirely empty gestures, but it’s been twisted into the idea that any expression of a moral stance must be vacuous—see Zuckerberg’s recent comments—but what if people signaling virtue is sometimes good, actually?”

I want to know what other folks care about, that I’m not alone, who allies are. We want to signal what’s virtuous. And I think that ties into another necessary behavioral practice: asserting what we know is right and just and caring, not being sidetracked by others’ assertions nor letting them set the conversation.

This post includes or riffs on some earlier writing I’ve done on Bluesky, including this thread about virtue signaling on Trans Day of Rememberance, and this QT of a good post by Ryan Cordell.