The protest went well tonight, I think. A fairly-sized group of people, including students, faculty, staff, and community members, attended and walked in a circle holding signs and showing solidarity for an hour before the game. Students held signs reading “Ignorance is not bliss” and “This is not just paint,” among many others.
As someone who held organize protests for a good year and a half at Iowa State protesting the war in Iraq (both before it started and after it started), it was refreshing to be part of a protest again for the first time in years. I sometimes worry about protests: what results from them? In many cases, a major result is further polarization on an issue. People who agree with the protest agree more strongly through the act of solidarity, and people who disagree disagree more strongly because the protesters are seen as a “nuisance” or “just people complaining.”
But I think, if we relay this to the idea of counterpublics, protesting does two very vital things for members of the counterpublic: 1) increase solidarity and restore souls, including restoring dignity for those maimed and replacing despair with hope; and 2) offers those who agree but are afraid and are not joining in the hope and affirmation that there are people who support them. For these two reasons, I am glad I participated.
I was also interviewed by the Corvallis Gazette-Times while protesting in regards to the noose and my thoughts on my previous blog posts.
EDIT: Gazette-Times article here, and I am quoted. 🙂
Again, thanks for posting about the protest.
i’m so torn about this whole thing. I don’t think the blackout was intended as racist at all. The term blackface means nothing to most of these uber white oregonians, so it was good to inform them of history and the potential for offense.
However, calling ignorant people racist rarely helps forge alliances or bridge gaps in knowledge. Comparing someone who didn’t know what backface was/is with a Klansman is a bit much.
When it comes to the protest I want to know what the goals/desired outcomes of the protest were. Were there any?
Julie,
I’m inclined to agree with you that there was no ill intent. I think it’s once behavior continues, and often increases once attention is called to it, is what is so frustrating and hurtful to marginalized communities.
I agree that calling people racist doesn’t actually help to forge alliances. It’s hard to convey to other people who aren’t listening without getting angry. Dealing with racism that exists at the margin of many folks’ consciousness is indeed a difficult thing.
I cannot speak to the goals of the protest organizers.My goal as an ally in anti-racist work was to show up and show support. My observation is that the goals were not too clear, except to raise awareness of the issue. But I could be wrong. I was not involved in the organizing or media relations for the protest, so I would rather not speak too much to the goals of the protest.
Michael,
Your paragraph about behavior continuing to hurt marginalized communities reminded me:
What I remember from the graphic design senior thesis class last year is one of my classmates had looked at symbols across the world. While I don’t remember the particulars, he implied that the cultural knowledge of symbols (both good and bad) is not well documented.
Do you agree? How can society improve this? Is this documentation the right way to gain consensus?
Clearly increasing social knowledge and appropriate use of symbols is the first step. This seemed to be a pervasive, but unofficial part of the design curriculum. Your writing has made me think; it looks like you’ve succeeded 🙂