As I watched the Students for a Democratic Society protest for Palestine unfold, I had a thought, “What is this going to lead to?”.
We’re here, shouting out our lungs about everything we think is unfair and unjust about the world, but what are we really doing?
I watched a group of students protest on Feb. 29th and watched as they marched through campus.
The protest’s primary focus was centered around the tuition hike, but protestors also mentioned two separate issues.
One surrounding an incident last semester where the police were called to the Black Scholars Floor in Joe West in response to a call that involved a Taser allegedly owned by a student, and another more recent incident on Feb. 19th where Jonathan Roth, a history and Jewish studies professor, allegedly grabbed a Muslim student during another protest on campus.
I watched some of the protestors antagonize and provoke the university police. At one point, one of the organizers with the megaphone directly insulted the chief by describing him as a “little Black man.”
While I’m not at all saying that the anger and high tensions aren’t justified, the method and the way we channel these emotions falls quite short of productive.
I notice that every now and then there’s semi-consistent protests that occur on campus, but not much else seems to be taking place that’s conducive to actual, permanent change.
Let’s give a callback to the political and social activism of legendary figures like Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, Angela Davis and other activists.
There were two key things —among countless other remarkable qualities— that these extraordinary people had in common: a willingness to die for their cause and the desire to push for unity as a platform to combat oppression.
These leaders had those traits and so did those who followed them in mass.
When King led protests and marches through the streets, he did so with a calm heart despite the injustices that happened to him when he was still alive.
In 1965, he interrupted and attacked during a protest when police used tear gas, whipped him and used other actions to disrupt the movement, according to an article by the History of Racial Injustice website.
What resulted from his organized nonviolent protest was King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” which heavily influenced the passing of the Civil Rights Act, according to an article by Britannica.
He reacted by continuing to systematically disrupt the institutions that perpetuated the oppression of his people.
According to an article from John L. Puckett at University of Pennsylvania, when Malcom X used Islam as a medium to uplift the Black community and combat oppression through organized and academic rallies, he was blacklisted by the FBI.
That didn’t stop him from organizing or strategically gaining power to combat oppression and racism across America.
Gandhi pushed for satyagraha, or nonviolent protest and fought against racial discrimination, according to a timeline published by the Indian National Congress,
Satyagraha means “clinging to truth”, it is most commonly used as a form of nonviolent protest, according to an article published by the Indian National Congress.
After spending years in prison, his support for non-violent protests allowed him to expand his message with nationwide campaigns, despite ever-increasing death threats.
Angela Davis, a celebrated member of the Black Panthers, was forced to flee the state and was actively pursued by the government, according to an article by History.com.
Yet she never stopped advocating for the people, founding several advocacy groups and alliances, such as the National Alliance Against Racists and the Political Repression organizations, according to an article by New York History.
There’s no chance you’d ever find any of these legendary activists hurling insults at police officers.
Partially because doing such a thing back then would likely result in broken bones or worse.
They all knew the only way forward was unity. Being violent and throwing insults at different people would only work against them, and this was a key concept that they all knew.
If all we do is make physical noise every now and then, we can’t really accomplish anything besides successfully antagonizing the other side.
Right now, we’re pushing people away. We’re pushing away the very people who have the means and the power to establish actual change.
What I saw at that protest a month ago was the perpetuation of polarization. Driving the gap between people even further. The same concept that the corruption in this country thrives on.
As time goes on, there just seems to be more and more polarization and less and less actual unity. We keep villainizing each other and genuinely believe that doing so will fix real problems or change something.
That’s not how it works.
If we want genuine change, we have to be willing to compromise and meet with the opposition on the other side.
Now if we’re not willing to take those risks and put in that work to pave the way to actual change, that’s honestly okay too. We don’t really owe anyone that.
But we should at least have the decency to admit that and not villainize other people who are comfortable with whatever effort or lack thereof they put forth.
So I go back to the original question. What are we really doing here?
Are we establishing actual change, or are we just shouting at the things that make us angry and expecting someone else to do something about it?
