Power, Privilege, and Protest

  

What do we do?

We shut shit down!

What do we do?

We shut shit down!

What do we do?

We shut shit down!

 

~ a chant heard at a Black Lives Matter protest

  

This past weekend saw the largest one-day mobilization so far against our new POTUS and his billionaire and Congressional enablers. It’s been estimated that the Hands Off! protests drew millions of people worldwide. Even in a county that’s about 75% red, our little heartland town had a reported turnout of some 150 people on a cold and rainy day. Good job! And I also appreciate that there seemed to be less of a “let’s pat ourselves on the backs for conducting a peaceful protest” vibe circulating in the wake of this action when compared to some previous largely White-led protests. Judging a protest on the basis of its perceived peacefulness is an inherently privileged thing to do—and privileged is really just another way of saying empowered. Admittedly, there’s a lot to unpack in that previous sentence, so I’ll dive right in.

It can be instructive at times to examine something alongside two extremes before moving on to a more nuanced analysis. I’ll begin, then, by comparing these largely peaceful protests to a riot. Yes, a riot. Thankfully, we’ve not reached a point where millions of people feel the need to take to the streets en masse with no other goal in mind but to destroy things in anger and frustration. It would mean that all other recourse has been deemed fruitless.

What Do We Do? We Shut Shit Down!

You may recall Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously pointing out that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” It took me well into adulthood, but I think I understand what he meant. When a group of people is so oppressed that their needs and concerns go unheard by those in the dominant culture, then frustration can build to explosive levels. At some point, any additional act of injustice is like a lit match thrown amongst the dry brush of a parched woodland. Speaking of rioting in this way does not mean we condone it. It simply means we understand the causes and conditions under which riots arise. 

That said, how do these recent, largely peaceful protests compare to the other extreme—the peace of not engaging in any protest whatsoever? Of course, that depends on your worldview and your definition of peace. Given that protest stirs up passions on both sides of an issue, some may consider it more an impediment to peace than a precipitant. People get angry. Horns are honked. Arguments ensue. And, after all that commotion, are any minds really changed? Ah, but what if the protest is intended to put an end to some injustice that stands in the way of true peace? Can we not agree that even a loud, unruly, disruptive, and less than peaceful protest in the service of justice is a protest in the service of peace?

Some may counter that this is precisely what we have representative government for. If a crime has been committed, call the police. If an injustice exists, take it up with your representative. Get someone elected. Take up the issue in the courts. Propose a legal or regulatory change. That’s the “right” way to do things. I’m going to step out on a limb here and posit that anyone who feels this way is either amongst the most privileged of all citizens or they’ve so internalized the voice of their own oppressor that they amplify it of their own volition.

So, let’s get back to the Hands Off! protests that just took place. In my estimation, we were a fairly privileged lot, albeit with less than complete confidence in our representation in the halls of government. The premise of the protests is that illegal and unconstitutional things are being done by this administration with the tacit approval of those very elected officials who are supposed to be acting as checks and balances on our behalf. On the other hand, despite this insult to our relative privilege, we still believe that, even if our elected officials aren’t listening to us at the moment, gosh darn it, when they see us on the news with our signs and our slogans, they will surely come to realize we mean business! But what if they don’t? What if it seems like they might not ever “get it.”

That is precisely the situation in which people found themselves as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests played out across the country. It wasn’t enough to simply contact representatives. They didn’t seem to care. It wasn’t enough to simply march with placards up and down the sidewalks. People merely looked away. It wasn’t enough to simply assemble in front of the Ferguson Police Headquarters, for instance. They weren’t inclined to speak with the riff-raff assembled out front. What then do you do? You shut shit down!

Shutting shit down, unlike a riot, does not destroy property or endanger lives. Shutting shit down may not be the most peaceful action, but it is not physically violent in and of itself. Shutting shit down says to the oppressor that business as usual will no longer take place in comfort. You may not be able to leave your gated community to enjoy a pleasant evening at the symphony anymore without a protest materializing before your very eyes. You may not be able to escape to the ballpark without a protest drawing your attention away from the game. Don’t expect to make that short jaunt down Main Street to the brewpub. The road in front of the police station just might be shut down. You want to just get home after a long day of work? Sorry, the highway’s been shut down.

As I said, shutting shit down is not violent in and of itself. However, it is most definitely infuriating to those of privilege who no longer have a choice but to come face to face with the results of the oppressive system in which they are complicit. And, yes, sometimes that fury becomes violent. Cars drive through crowds of protesters, injuring or even killing some of them. Unarmed protesters get menaced by angry people toting guns. Police show up in full riot gear to brutalize and arrest unarmed protesters and witnesses alike. The full force of the state WILL be used if its power to oppress is threatened in any way.

Thus, whether a protest is allowed to remain peaceful or not depends on a number of factors:

1. What perceived privilege do the protesters enjoy? How confident are they in being listened to and heard? The less privilege protesters perceive they have the more extreme they must be in order to be heard.

2. How “othered” are the protesters in the eyes of the dominant culture? BLM protesters were very much othered by the dominant White culture. They were presumed to be lazy, jobless criminals in search of free stuff—antithetical to the so-called Protestant work ethic of the dominant culture. Protesters against the genocide being perpetrated in Palestine are similarly othered as being anti-Semitic, terrorist-supporting disrupters acting contrary to the Judeo-Christian values of this nation. Some on the right seek to other “Liberals” as being Socialist, Marxist, Communist—anything but good U.S. citizens! This othering hasn’t fully taken root. But that’s not to say it won’t.

3. How “othered” are the protesters in the eyes of law enforcement? During the time of the Ferguson Uprising, the Ferguson Police Department was overwhelmingly White. The protesters were largely Black. In downtown St. Louis the police force was more integrated, but race relations were (and are) so bad that there were (and still are) separate White and Black police officer associations. Not surprisingly, the BLM protests in Ferguson and St. Louis were considered less than fully peaceful.

I certainly hope that protests of this current administration remain as peaceful as they have been so far. The organizers of Hands Off! are committed to nonviolence. They state that they “expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values, and to act lawfully at these events.” However, we don’t yet really know whether our voices have been and are being heard.  What if they’re not? Will the “volume” need to be turned up? It’s also unknown how these protests will continue to be perceived in the court of public opinion. Will the ugly rhetoric of the fringe become more mainstream as the temperature rises? And what will be the general attitude of the police? Will they continue to see the protesters as fellow Americans advocating for justice, or will the protesters become othered in their eyes—an entity that needs to be crushed?

It is with sadness and pride that I dedicate this post to one of my professors and mentors who was an absolute lion of an activist during the Ferguson Uprising, the ongoing BLM protests, and the ongoing liberation of LGBTQIA+ individuals. He passed away as I was writing this post. He was on my mind much of the time. If I can add just a little bit to the work Stephen Houldsworth accomplished, I will know I'm on the right track. Thank you, Stephen.

Stephen Houldsworth

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This post is in the Power, Practice, and Peace series.

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Copyright 2025 by Mark Robert Frank