protest is Unusual Behavior...How Did it Go Mainstream?

Author: Jonathan White

Judging from the media, one might argue that America is headed toward a revitalized protest movement. Sit-ins have occurred on college campuses like the University of California at Berkeley to protest a potential war with Iraq, while Washington, D.C. and San Francisco have witnessed major anti-war demonstrations. Middlebury itself became a hotbed during a visit by White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer '82 last month. Not too far out of the realm of recent memory are the anti-globalization protests in Seattle in 1999 and Quebec in 2001 that garnered much attention among Middlebury students.
"The act of protesting is unusual. It is not the standard behavior of ordinary people," explained Professor of History Jim Ralph. Given this, what motivates protesters to go against standard behavior, both today and in the past?
Ralph, who is teaching a seminar on the protest impulse in American history, discussed protests, protesters, their motives and their methods in an interview last week.
Ralph said that protesters, in general, are motivated by some form of exceptional injustice in need of rectification. As protesting is not an ordinary activity for Americans, something "extraordinary leads people to offer a public display of their displeasure," Ralph explained.

Protests and Colleges

In studying trends in the protest tradition, political theorists Harry Boyte and Sara Evans have advanced the idea of "free spaces." Boyte and Evans assert that certain environments, accommodating both the interchange of ideas and the coalescence of a group with a common ideology, are critical in the formation of protests. College campuses seem to be a fitting example of such a free space. An obvious question arises then in relation to an institution like Middlebury: Do colleges tend to encourage protests?
Ralph said it is "not surprising" when colleges become protest powderkegs. He cautioned, however, that the link between colleges and protests might be over-exaggerated. "Young people are more likely to take to the streets than older people," he affirmed. Yet looking at that decade famous for political agitation, the 1960s, Ralph observed that protests were generally confined to large schools such as Berkeley, Harvard and Columbia. "You don't find the same range of insurgency in smaller institutions at that time," he said, noting that Middlebury students have never been inclined towards social protest.
"There is a sixties prototype," Ralph explained. "The standard is, how do you measure up against the sixties?" The endurance of this standard has trickled down through 1980s protests against South African apartheid, sweatshops in the 1990s and, more recently, globalization. It has infiltrated current protests over the war on terror and the impending war with Iraq.
The sixties prototype also survives in the identification of strong leaders at the forefront of protest movements. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X appealed in an era of emerging mass media and today Americans still look to associate prominent figures as touchstones of a larger movement.

Protests: Bound upon a wheel of fire?

The overarching model of the 1960s references another school of thought in the study of protests: that they occur on a cyclical or generational basis. Theorists such as Samuel Huntington and Arthur Schlesinger have advanced this model, and Ralph agrees that certain eras have a catalytic effect. He explained that the civil rights struggle of the 1960s bled over into concerns about inequalities in other realms, such as gender. A similar situation emerged in the 19th century when the women's movement aligned with the abolitionist movement to target society's injustices. "No question there's a certain synergy when fundamental protest movements take place," Ralph remarked. "Periods of activism tend to lead to even greater criticism of established ways."

Protest Forms

Be it sit-ins, demonstrations or boycotts, the forms of protest are varied. The one branded in the minds of many students at the College proceeds from last month's protests during Fleischer's visit. This example is similar to larger anti-war protests that have occurred nationwide in the last month. Such demonstrations have been largely peaceful.
Ralph elucidated that in contrast to such peaceful demonstrations are more confrontational protests that involve acts of civil disobedience. The anti-globalization protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO) exemplify this form of protest, as do some of the civil rights and Vietnam era protests. Ralph said that individuals subscribe to a higher cause of justice in breaking the law. He elaborated, saying that that civil disobedience tends to "escalate the protest and make it a more extreme act." Ralph recalled that Martin Luther King urged those who chose the path of civil disobedience to be prepared to accept the penalties for their transgressions.
Other important types of protest include "acts of omission" involving the withdrawal of one's patronage of an institution which include boycotting a store or not riding a bus.

Measuring Success

"Protest groups must be shrewd about their audience," Ralph avowed. "The ultimate goal of a protest is to win people over in exposing an injustice." A successful protest is one in which the audience is prompted to think that change must take place. As such, protesters must advance a cause in such a way that it resonates with their audience and does not alienate individuals, Ralph said.
A token aspect of protesting and one tied to the ultimate success of a protest is drama. "In tension there's drama," Ralph asserted. He detailed that drama is an extraordinary part of the scene of a protest, and often flows directly from protest participants who are emotional about their cause. Moreover, any demonstration that brings together a significant number of people is bound to convey a sense of drama. "A group rallying to affect action has a dramatic effect of its own," Ralph observed. He said he believes that the crowd mentality carries an element of drama.
In concluding, Ralph commented: "To bring about change is hard. It is hard to sustain momentum and keep new ideas flowing so that there is not staleness to a protest. Successful protests are rare."
After one large outpouring of sentiment or action, Ralph said that the toughest question protesters must face is "What do you do next?"