Protesting at Brown

From accusations of police brutality, and BUDS employees seeking increased wages and reduced hours, to gays demanding the restoration of their constitutionally protected blood-giving privileges, and the creation of gender-neutral bathrooms, this year has been one for the books. I have never seen so much protesting in all of my life. But as I recall, we are nearing the end of the protest season. Which got me thinking: where do all the Brown students go after the snow begins to fall?

It is a curious question. Were I to assume that Brown students protested everything worth protesting, I would have to be comfortable with the strange fact that unreasonable things only happen during the warm months. I am not so illogical as to believe this true. And so, there are two other possibilities. Either Brown students do not protest everything that ought to be protested or, (and I think that this is a far more reasonable assertion,) Brown students love to protest for the sake of protesting . . . but only when it is convenient.

This year I have attended as many protests as possible. If I hear gibberish being screamed from the Main Green, I grab my video camera, and I run as quickly as I can to see what sort of inane cause we are fighting for today. Having attended a number of protests, and having recorded them all, I noticed something curious: the same people are involved in every single protest. For these students, it seems that protesting has become a pastime. And that’s a problem. Brown students should be doing something constructive with their time, like giving blankets to the homeless when they are cold, flying overseas and helping refugees, or taking one of those musicians on Thayer Street to lunch; I mean, aren’t these the things that Brown students like to say they care about?

At its core, protesting is incredibly selfish. The goal of protestors—usually—is to get something for themselves. The goal of protestors is to make their own lives better by making your life worse. The goal of protestors is to accomplish a given task regardless of who, or what, stands in the way. Now, I am not saying that protesting is all bad. In fact I am a staunch proponent of civil acts of disobedience meant to “send a message to the man,” both lawful and, at times, unlawful. In fact, merely in terms of its symbology, I think there is historical precedent that solidifies the efficaciousness of protesting.

Circa 32 AD, Jesus’ acts of civil defiance led to his death on the cross. To Christians, Christ’s death is a symbol of His devotion to truth and marks the point at which God reconciled with humanity. His death also gave rise to the Catholic Church, which is, has been, and will probably forever be the biggest, oldest, and most entrenched firm ever to exist. Since its early days, the Church has encouraged men to follow Christ’s example uncompromisingly. One example, Telemachus, died in 404 AD defending what he believed to be true. Telemachus, a monastic, intervened with a gladiatorial fight and was stoned to death by an angry crowd. Emperor Honorius was so moved by the act of civil defiance that he issued an edict banning gladiatorial fights in Rome. In 1517, when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, he single-handedly became the catalyst for the reorganization of the 1400 year old entity.

In 1773, a group of courageous Bostonians jumped aboard a vessel and threw the East India Company’s tea into the harbor. This was one of many acts of civil disobedience that led to America’s greatest protest ever, known as the Revolutionary War. That protest worked quite well. Around the same time (1789) on the other end of the pond, a group of defiant Frenchman (and women) stormed the Bastille. These French people took it upon themselves to do the first (and perhaps only) courageous thing that the French have collectively done. Their protest marks the beginning of the French Revolution, which, to the best of my knowledge, is the only war that France has ever won.

In 1930, Ghandi led thousands of people to the sea to harvest salt in order to shirk the salt tax imposed by the British government. They sent a message similar to that of the message sent by the Bostonians in the famous Tea Party protest. In fact, Ghandi cited the Tea Party as his inspiration. More recently, from about 1955 to the mid 1980’s, we saw the effects of what has come to be known as the Civil Rights movement. After Rosa Park’s act of civil disobedience on the bus where she refused to give up her seat, blacks all over America mobilized in what became one of the world’s most effective movements. The entire movement was characterized by civil disobedience often encouraged by the famous Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. They performed sit-ins, stand-ins, boycotts, marches, and caused other various nuisances. Thanks to all that and God almighty, people of all races are free at last, in a country that finally holds the corporate belief that all people are created equally.

Historically, protesting has come to be understood as the most effective tool in accomplishing world-change. But, to that end, history’s most effective protests have not proceeded one after the other. The proprietors of history’s most effective protests have been passionate about a singular cause. Many of them died for that cause. They were willing to give up everything to accomplish their goal, and that is what made the leaders of these movements compelling enough to follow. This is also what makes protests led by Brown students cringe-inducing. While I believe there to be great honor in fighting for a cause at all costs (even if I disagree with the particulars of a cause being fought), there is little honor in fighting for causes of convenience.

While Brown’s history is not devoid of effective protesting (1969 African American student class boycott for example) there has been very little in the way of actual, effective action—especially in recent years. There is a strange impetus that drives Brown students to believe that the solution to every magnitudinous problem is to get a contingency of students together on the Main Green and shout at buildings. The issues of real importance tend to get thrown to the wayside as protest fatigue wears away at the core of those of us who would like to care. The way I see it, Brown students like to organize and shout things on the Main Green for the sake of convenience. To stage a creative protest would be risky, and it may not fit into an individual’s busy class schedule. Needless to say, organizing action between classes for the sake of one’s grades, does not give anybody else a compelling reason to jump on the bandwagon. Rather, it says, “this is an issue I care about, so long as it doesn’t interfere with the rest of my life.” It is the same reason I keep seeing the same people at protests. But realize, when protesting becomes a hobby, the protestor loses all credibility with the observer.

So, if you want to be compelling, if you want to be a leader for effective change, stick with one issue and one goal. Be passionate about that one issue and that one goal; put all of your energy into accomplishing that one goal. Make sure that the issue you take up is your one hill worth dying on. And then, go all out—be creative. Do more than just yell things at buildings and accuse administrators of misdeeds. Stage your protest even when it is cold or uncomfortable outside. Boycott classes, join ROTC, do something significant. Because, frankly, if there is nothing significant at stake for the warrior protestor, the issue for which they are fighting will not be compelling to us, and their credibility will die upon the pile of manure they have deemed to be their “one hill”.