When defining politics or political consciousness, the average person will resort to the obvious: that it’s an understanding of power in social, political and economic systems. We associate the word “politics” with flashy campaigns, thousands of wasted dollars on annoying advertisements, speeches, debates, idolized men such as the Kennedy’s, the list goes on. However, to contrary what the public eye might be led to believe, there is also an entirely different side to politics than what most are steered into believing. Robin Kelley highlights this other side of politics in his article “We Are Not What We Seem- Rethinking Black Working –Class Opposition in the Jim Crow South”. Kelly brings to light the idea of infrapolitics or the concept that “the circumspect struggle waged daily by subordinate groups is, like infrared rays, beyond the visible end of the spectrum. That it should be invisible is in large part by design- a tactical choice born of a prudent awareness of the balance of power.” We need look past the obvious and question “what aren’t we seeing or hearing?” In reaching an understanding of these infrapolitics, we are able to identify with the oppressed people in political history and find motives in their actions, specifically in the events of the Civil Rights Movement.

However, when considering the Civil Rights Movement, we must think of it not as a single event in history, but as a mass of small-scale movements. Instead of associating with the idolized figures in history such as Martin Luther King Jr, Kelly opens our minds to the political effect of the everyday oppressed African American, and exposes relatable “activists” in history. Kelly describes how these African Americans were able to resist to their inequality in their everyday lives by doing things other than the typical marches, petitions, sit ins, but had alternative forms of protest. These