Non-Violence and the Utility of Protest

Stay safe out there today, everyone

Photo by Spenser H on Unsplash

For a few years now, I’ve been really thinking about the utility of protest, of symbolic action, of what it means to show up on the streets with your body to express anger at something. I’ve been at disque nonviolent protests before—I was kettled by the NYPD as a college student, have spent my entire adulthood watching nonviolent protests escalated by police into violent confrontations. I have marched calmly past organized lines of cops with zip-tie handcuffs dangling from their belts to the ground, waiting to hold my friends and comrades. I have marched past lines of police on horseback, waiting to use their mounts to intimidate and harass protesters. Every time I have hit the streets it is to protest state violence—against Black people, against immigrants, against needless, expensive, genocidal wars—and the state responds with threatened violence.

We keep showing up in the streets, and Black people keep dying at the hands of cops who are never held accountable, the war in Gaza is ongoing and expanding, and ICE tactics continue escalating, separating more and more families. Which, you know, leads to the question of why we keep doing this, why we keep showing up, making ourselves vulnerable to the very violence we aim to stop. The only answer I keep coming to is that in doing so, we show the vast difference between the world as it is and the world as it ought to be.

In showing the police violently responding to peaceful protests, in seeing the footage of an Australian journalist shot with a rubber bullet by a police officer, in watching students who have done nothing but write an op-ed asking for their university to divest from the war in Gaza be kidnapped off the streets by ICE officers, we are shown the irrationality of the government’s responses, the way the rule of law is being continually violated by our leaders, the way the police is not here to protect people, but rather to protect the interests of the state and capital. You cannot watch these videos and think we live in a country that is actually interested in upholding the first amendment.

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Nonviolence shows us the hypocrisy of the country we live in, the distance between the way things are and the way things ought to be. I honestly think that these protests against ICE arrests have been deeply illustrative of this. People have seen, while scrolling social media, what it actually means to be arrested by ICE, have seen what it looks like to have armed men descend on a workplace, have heard children cry as their parents are taken away. This has been a catalyzing moment for many people, the time when a vague idea that “mass deportations” were a bad idea transforms into an anger that commits itself to action.

Even though I’ve been committed in that particular way for almost 10 years now, I’m thrilled that more people are noticing, are figuring out that this is the moment to speak out, that they are finding out what, precisely the catalyst is that will get them off their couches. I’m thinking of the protesters in San Diego who forced ICE back, of community members who are training to keep their neighbors safe because their whiteness gives police intent on violence some pause. I don’t know how many of them are first time protesters, and how many of them have been doing this work for a long time, but in either case, I’m glad they’ve got our backs.

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I won’t be hitting the streets today—a friend is getting married, we march for bread and roses too (I have complicated feelings about this! I wrote about it in my own newsletter!) However, if you’re planning on heading out today, remember to stay safe, comfortable and protected. I love this guide from Feminist Campus about what to wear, how to prepare, and what to bring:

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And if, like me, you’re not able to or comfortable joining the protests, remember that there’s a lot of ways to show your support for communities under threat—support that’s required not just on a specific weekend, but day after day. Sign up for your local mutual aid, have a bake sale or a lemonade stand to raise money for a local group doing good work, help a neighbor. Whatever it is—commit to an action this week, put your body and your time on the line for your community. Nonviolence requires caretaking, requires community, requires a strong, rooted network in order to be effective. Become a part of that network.

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Thank you so much for reading! You can find my newsletter here, my website here, and you can buy my book, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith and Migration here.