Student Activism Today:
How do we compare with activism from the '60s?
The story below covers why current college student activists are sometimes looked upon as a joke -- mere loudmouth kids with nothing intelligent to say. This story is one of three from a two-month investigation with Alyssa McKinley and Michael Hartman regarding student activism.
Ditch the megaphones and use your brain:
Why student activists are not taken seriously
With merely bandanas tightly wrapped around the lower third of their faces, the brightly colored fabric their only means of concealment, they believed their identities were a mystery to the curiously watchful, passing pedestrians. The street their feet glided and stomped furiously upon was their domain, their territory, and the approaching nemesis in navy blue uniforms the intruders.
White-knuckled, clenched fists pumped into the air. Spit flying and expletives exchanged between the activists and police, confrontation ensued as the street protesters marched the asphalt.
The young, rebellious Joel Olson felt empowered, adrenaline rushing hot and swiftly through his veins. He knew would remember this day for years to come…
And he did. Decades later, leaning back in his leather chair adjacent to his cluttered office desk piled high with syllabi and ungraded papers, Olson’s voice fluctuated simultaneously with enthusiasm and passion as he retold his street protesting past. Now an associate professor in the
department of politics & international affairs at Northern Arizona University, Olson reminisced proudly about his activist days, but he questioned whether street protesting really made a difference. He asked himself if the confrontation with the police, shouting in the streets, changed the world for the better. He asked himself what would have been a more effective approach.
Olson’s street protesting occurred in the late ‘80s. If he felt it didn’t change anything then or now, will protesting today be considered a wasted effort in the future? Can students today change the world for the better?
The real question is: How? How can student activists be taken seriously today?
Student activism techniques today are in some ways similar to those utilized in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Protesters still use megaphones, picket signs, shouting, chanting; and they still march the streets. However, the groups formed aren’t quite as large as those groups of protesters depicted in the iconic photos seen from the past — especially those photos of the Kent State protest from 1970.
The sizes of the groups today could be considered one problem, one reason why student activism is seen as ineffective and passive — closet activism. More diverse groups, including gay rights groups, anti-abortion, young democrats, women’s rights, and so on, exist in smaller numbers. And, with smaller groups, the protests seem less important and are hardly seen or recognized unless covered by the media.
However, according to National Wildlife Federation online, about one million students on 1,800 campuses across the U.S. participated in Focus the Nation, the country’s largest climate teach-in. And a year ago, several thousand college students from across the country gathered to rally at the Power Shift conference held at the University of Maryland.
Does this mean rallying and demonstrations are only effective in the long-run if they occur and are gathered in large crowds? Are they only effective if every group across the country supporting the same cause rallied at the same exact time?
Ray Barnes, Arizona Republican representative in District 7, believes large demonstrations are full of emotions and lack education and background knowledge of every protester involved. Barnes said activists should start with emotions and passion, but end with logic. Enthusiastically educating the politicians with clean activism rather than threatening them will make activists look more professional, and they will be taken seriously.
“Outside activism does more to convince people to become more active,” Barnes said. “But, I want to see proper activism; I want to see logic rather than feelings. And that’s the problem with most activism is it’s a bunch of feelings. We put out 10,000 people out there, and every one of them is into feelings.”
One way student activists can rally in a more professional and effective way is through a grassroots democracy. Grassroots movements are natural and spontaneous, driven by the community at a local level. Through grassroots, students lobby through gathering signatures, putting up posters, raising money through fundraisers and organizing large demonstrations. These methods and techniques are much more peaceful and educational, what Barnes believes is a more effective means of activism.
Olson said starting at the local level will show the community that students do care about what’s happening in their city. The community will be able to put a face to the name and support the grassroots. Sometimes, movements don’t have to be large and loud; and sometimes, certain movements don’t lend themselves to those types of substantial rallying.
“I think it’s important to devise and keep thinking of new protest tactics, new ways of coming together,” Olson said. “I think it’s important for them to focus on community organizing, building from the grassroots and not just simply doing things off Facebook and not just simply holding protests, but rooting yourself in the communities that are most affected by whatever the issues they’re dealing with. I don’t think we should beat ourselves up because there are no movements right now. Times aren’t always ready.”
Kyrsten Sinema, assistant leader to the Democratic Caucus in the Arizona House of Representatives, lobbied in the past and has years of experience regarding how to approach politicians in a more professional manner. She believes students should take a course that will make them an expert regarding what to say and how to talk to politicians.
“Show up early; be willing to wait,” Sinema said. “Have your message willed down to five minutes or less. Leave something with the legislature like one piece of paper with bullet points and the important stuff in bold. No packages of information; they’ll throw it away. You want to be succinct, precise and ask them for something. Don’t be nice and visit; you actually want to say ‘this is what I would like for you to do’ and wait to get an answer and hold them accountable afterward.”
Sinema agreed with Barnes in that student activists should never threat politicians, and they need to keep up their end of the bargain. For example, if students say they will e-mail a document, then they need to do it.
Regarding why some students do and don’t involve themselves in activism, studies conducted by Alexandra Corning and Daniel Myers in Political Psychology stated that certain types of activists, whether they be radical or peaceful, view other activists in different ways.
“An activist measure that includes only relatively extreme behaviors may underestimate the activist orientation of a highly committed individual who consistently engages in low-risk political behaviors and may overestimate the activist orientation of an individual who engages infrequently in highly disruptive, high-cost behaviors.”
In other words, radical protesting trumps low-risk activism. The study also found that people are more likely to engage in activism, especially high-cost activism, if they have the security.
“Because one sustained finding has been that interpersonal and organizational ties are critical to propelling activism, the extent of such ties should be represented in an activism scale. These ties provide recruits not only with information about activist causes and opportunities to act, but also with social networks that encourage and support the sometimes difficult decision to engage in costly or risky behavior.”
Especially now with the struggling economy, more and more people feel hesitant to include themselves in activism in fear of losing their jobs or being unable to gain a job. So, they resort to closet activism, i.e. joining Facebook causes or signing an online or e-mail petition. It is easier today to take on anonymity with the internet at our fingertips.
But, is Facebook effective? Or, is it a passive, lazy approach to activism?
Olson believes Facebook is a tool, but an effective one at that, to get the message to the people. But, it shouldn’t be a strategy, requiring the student to take more action within the community.
“Any tool you can use to bring public pressure [to politicians] so that millions of people can have that same influence as that one s.o.b. who gets the meeting with [the politician] is a good thing,” Olson said. “So, Facebook is a great tool. I’ve seen lots of protests and the word get out on Facebook in a way that I could only dream I had these tools back in the late ‘80s and ‘90s to organize. I wouldn’t underestimate it, especially when it’s used to get people to go out to an event. It’s a tool, and when we mistake tools for strategies, that’s the problem — tactics versus strategies.”
Whether a student is outside marching in a crowd surplus of 100 or lounging in his or her dorm joining a Facebook cause or clicking the send button to mass e-mail a petition, all methods are considered activism. However, the experienced, older generation of past activists is emphasizing the importance of remaining active and supporting the causes about which students are passionate.
Be knowledgeable, know what you want and go after it. College students were the driving force behind electing Barack Obama for President, so why should they stop there?
The video above includes student opinions from Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University regarding student activism at their respective colleges.
Interested in Alyssa or Michael's stories, videos & blogs regarding student activism? Click your way over to: Student Activism Blog.
