Page 32 - aruba-today-20180623

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 23 June 2018
Today's protests: Many voices, social media, not 1 leader

By SHARON COHEN, AP Na- also say there are benefits
tional Writer to having a leader.
CHICAGO (AP) — The "A lot of people out there
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today feel there's some-
marching arm-in-arm with thing really wrong and bro-
other civil rights activists. ken with the country, with
Cesar Chavez hoisting a the world," says Karthik Ga-
picket sign in a farm work- napathy, rapid response
ers' strike. Gloria Steinem director at MoveOn.org,
rallying other feminists for a public policy advocacy
equal rights. group. "The value of hav-
During the 1960s and into ing a centralized leader is
the 1970s, amid the turbu- there's someone saying,
lence of protests for civil 'Here's what you can do
rights and against the Viet- about it.' Yet now, he says,
nam War, every movement there's no one who "can re-
seemed to have a famous ally claim that mantle the
face — someone at a po- way that King did."
dium or at the front of a But even in King's day,
march who possessed a movements couldn't be re-
charismatic style, soaring duced to a single face.
oratory and an inspiring Whether it was the bus
message. This combination of 1963-1979 photos shows, from left, Cesar Chavez, The Rev. Martin Luther King boycott in Montgomery,
Not so today. Jr. and Gloria Steinem. Alabama, the Vietnam
The new wave of political Associated Press War protest at the Lincoln
activism, marked by pro- Memorial or the farm work-
tests in the nation's capital social media has radically progressives believe there's Another leaderless move- ers' strike in California, each
and cities across America, transformed activism. De- "something inherently ment, Occupy Wall Street, history-making event de-
looks more anonymous. cades ago, it could take wrong or problematic" rocked the heart of New pended on hundreds or
Since the presidential weeks of planning, news- about having a dynamic York's financial district in thousands of foot soldiers
election of Donald Trump, paper ads and a rous- leader, says Fabio Rojas, an 2011 with its encampment who organized, raised
there have been marches ing speaker to organize a Indiana University sociology in a park and its rallying cry money and engaged in
for women, science, the successful protest. Now a professor. "Modern progres- — "We are the 99 Percent" other grass-roots work.
Dreamers — immigrants Facebook post or a series sive social movements see — that condemned the And many leaders were
brought to the U.S. illegally of tweets can fill the streets, themselves as a very dem- concentration of wealth in backed by formidable
as children — and most jam a state capitol or block ocratic form of politics," he the U.S. organizations: For King, it
recently, gun control, a re- an expressway. says. "When they make de- Many credit Occupy with was the Southern Christian
sponse to the school shoot- "With the rise of social me- cisions, they want a lot of putting economic inequal- Leadership Conference;
ing in Parkland, Florida. dia, it's definitely a lot easier consensus." ity on the national ra- for anti-war activist Tom
In all those events, many for people to mobilize more Black Lives Matter, which dar, but Micah White, the Hayden, the Students for
voices — some more high- quickly and you don't nec- has been in the forefront of group's co-founder, says a Democratic Society; for
profile than others — have essarily need to have one protests against police vio- the real goal — to end feminist Betty Friedan, the
represented each cause. charismatic leader like Dr. lence and fatal shootings the influence of money on National Organization for
Have America's protests King, who had almost some of black men, is among democracy — was "a con- Women. Hasan Jeffries, an
changed so they rely more kind of magical quality," the many movements that structive failure. ... The main associate professor at Ohio
on the masses and less on says Rachel Einwohner, a have adopted this ap- lesson is that street protests State University and expert
one captivating leader? Purdue University sociology proach. do not translate into politi- on African-American his-
The answer, some experts professor. "But you still do "The model of the charis- cal change because elect- tory, says the civil rights
say, is yes, for two reasons: need some powerful mes- matic leader was not some- ed representatives are not movement was always de-
Progressive politics have sage that really resonates thing that we were interest- required to listen to the ma- centralized, but the media,
moved in that direction— with a lot of people." ed in and in fact, many of jority." looking for someone quot-
think Black Lives Matter, Technology alone hasn't us were trained to believe While this democratic ap- able, would zero in on one
Occupy Wall Street — and created the shift. Some that the people themselves proach is effective, experts person — often, King.q
are going to set themselves
free, not one person," says
Patrisse Cullors, a co-found-
er of the group.
Cullors says her group is
sometimes misunderstood.
"People assume because
we hit the streets and pro-
tested that we don't be-
lieve in anything else ...
and that because we don't
have a single leader, we're
aimless." Instead, she says,
Black Lives Matter, which
has 40 chapters in the U.S.,
In this March 14, 2018 file photo, demonstrators raise their fists in Canada and England, has
the air during a student-led march against gun violence at the a clear strategy, including In this Monday, July 22, 2013, "Dreamers" wearing graduation
Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. participating in electoral caps and gowns to show their desire to finish school in the U.S.
Associated Press Associated Press
politics.