There are two types of people in this world: Those who believe in the power of protest and those who mock it. It’s an age-old battle of the optimistic few versus the jaded masses. Both sides feel certain that their way is right and both are driven by anecdotal evidence. There’s no definitive study on protesting. Hundreds, thousands of protests across the nation fall flat every year. Plenty of social media boycotts and school sit-ins fail to make a ripple. So it’s easy to be dubious.
But here’s the kicker: Protests also change things. Every year that this country has been a country, and even the very moment that this country became a country, protests were vital to how we shaped our future. That’s not blind idealism, that’s fact. We are a nation nurtured on dissent, and we have been better for it every step of the way.
This month, people took to the streets to rally against a Donald Trump presidency. They marched through large cities and small ones. They used social media to share their message and they pushed back against political machinations which they felt contradicted their values.
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To which, many people only laughed. Or made memes. It’s temping — and easy — to say, “There’s no point protesting a president who’s already been elected.” But the better, more relevant, deeper-thinking question might be: Why?
Why are you giving up your time and energy to chant and hold signs? Why are you fighting? Why now?
These questions are particularly worth asking when it comes to young people across the country. Why have these kids — many of them younger-than voting age — taken to the streets? When you ask those questions, you make an pretty immediate discovery: The youth have answers to share. Are you willing to listen?
“How are you supposed to raise kids in a country where the president doesn’t even have manners?” asked 15-year-old Sofia Hefter-Smith, explaining why she participated in a school walk out shortly after the election.
Hefter-Smith’s response does a good job encapsulating what so many in the anti-Trump camp have tried to cogently express: This isn’t just about politics, it’s about the man himself.
“They want to teach us how to have respect, but how can they do that when the president doesn’t show that?” she continues.
The other issue that comes up, over and over, is Trump’s particular brand of nationalism, which many feel is braided together with deep-seated racism.
“We are a diverse school and accepting environment, and we feel the Trump administration is going to try and divide us,” Pearl Strand, a 17-year-old, explained to the Washington Post after a walkout. “We are protesting to show we are united.”
Certainly, this election seems to be igniting a brand new era of political involvement and youth activism. An estimated 4,000 students walked out in Los Angeles. Students from Washington State to Washington D.C. did the same. Even the republican stronghold of Arizona saw walk outs.
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Many teachers and administrators have managed to find the “teachable moment” in these protests. Berkeley High Principal Sam Pasarow said, “This is a really intense learning experience for the students. I don’t have the ability to say stop, and I’m not sure that I would.”
Hefter-Smith certainly feels that the election and her choice to walk out has shifted her course. “If you believe in something, you fight for it,” she says. “If you believe in something enough, you partake in the process… you become an activist.”
It’s a choice that has deep roots in the American tradition.
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