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Annoying white lefties

DCblogger's picture
Submitted by DCblogger on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 7:15pm

Check out this annoying video of white anti-war activists trying to take Obama's promise to end the Iraq war "to the bank." So there they are at a local branch of Bank of America making a pest of themselves, to what purpose? Are they convincing anyone to join the coalition? Or are they just persuading people that anti-war lefties are annoying?

You never see black people in this kind of protest. You look at the civil rights protests, or the free South Africa protests, or simply those black people who joined the Medicare for All National Day of Action, and you see protesters conducting themselves in a dignified way in a manner calculated to bring others to their side.

Protesting is not about acting out. You have to consider your audience. You have to define who you are trying to reach and how to communicate to them. It is ok to make yourself inconvenient, but only for a purpose.

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twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

and confusing. What was he trying to accomplish by making a spectacle of himself, other than irritate everyone around him?

This would be a good addition to a lesson on "How Not To Protest."

Submitted by Lex on

Does he think that Bank of America is a branch of the United States government? Is it a metaphorical protest? He couldn't think of anything better to protest about at Bank of America?

As a tshirt i saw this weekend said, "Jesus would slap the shit out of you."

a little night musing's picture
Submitted by a little night ... on

Indispensible IMO. The original link is dead (I linked this once before here and referred to it another time) - here's the Internat Archive link.

But I'll quote again the whole thing, because:

How to be an Activist: Being Civilly Disobedient
By Ben White

Civil Disobedience (CD) - breaking the law of the day to argue for a greater goal - has been used as a form of activism for many years. Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. used it. Ben White lays down some philosophical ground rules for those who feel they wish to undertake CD. The following is not intended as a recommendation to undertake CD; that is entirely a personal decision.

1. Challenging the infliction of suffering is the right thing to do. Feel proud. If you act like a criminal, you will be treated as one.

2. Treat everyone - police, your opponents, the press - as potential converts. Be persuasive, not angry.

3. Be peaceful. Completely. If verbally attacked, smile. If physically attacked, protect yourself without responding in kind. Look the person in the eye.

4. Remember why you are doing it - to keep from personally acquiescing to suffering. The more oppressive the treatment of you, the more obvious the institutional protection of systemic violence.

5. There is power in numbers.

6. Come across as a normal person. Otherwise your opinion is considered by many to be worthless.

7. Know your subject. Don't answer any question from the media that you're not sure of.

8. Appeal to the inherent sense of fairness in your opponent or the police who are encountered.