Sometimes Dignity is Enough

Some thoughts about Rep. Al Green's protest and standing up for yourself and others after last night's Presidential Address to Congress.

We talked about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in my Civil Rights Movement history class today. But, I started the class by talking about Texas Rep. Al Green's protest during last night's speech. Obviously, I wasn't interested in talking about the content of the speech, nor even about the Democrat Party's opposition strategy. I wanted to talk about something more fundamental about standing up for yourself and others. I told them about how I was troubled by watching him be the only person to really challenge the rules of "decorum" and how not one Democrat decided they would stand next to him and get thrown out too.

Watching the Sergeant at Arms escort Rep. Green was hard to watch because of the optics--a bunch of mostly white Republicans are yelling at this guy and wishing for him to be escorted while it didn't seem like any of the Democrats were willing to stand with him in that moment (and not just walk out later as many did). Also, for me, it violated a rule of protest and solidarity (that I have not always followed perfectly)--you do not let someone go out on a limb by themselves. You do the best you can to change your plans in the moment (and sometimes we fail, and that's okay).

I then reminded my class that people are motivated to protest for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes someone is organized into struggle; sometimes a person or a group is connected to a larger movement with clear aims and demands; sometimes folks are part of a larger protest and their aim is to disrupt; and sometimes one, a few, or a group of people decide to stand up and not let someone in authority disturb theirs and/or others' humanity. Our goal in the class is to understand all of the reasons, not just the ones we agree with.

Then, I talked about a protest that took place at the University of Michigan a few years ago, when I was there working as a postdoc. One graduate student, Dana Greene, Jr. decided to kneel in the Diag for 24 hours to protest state violence and to express his disatsifaction with diversity policies on campus. His protest started as a one-person action, then a bunch of people decided they would join him and others would support him and the others by acquiring necessary resources like umbrellas (it was hot), water (obviously), and food. We worked to get the word out about the protest to the press. And folks were willing to stay with him for however long he wanted to kneel. It is possible a lot of folks had not participated in a protest up until that point, but it was clear they were not about to let him kneel alone, especially once they saw others join. Many probably did not have plans to participate that day, but they did. Not everyone just walked by or looked on.

I ended my story by talking about bystander effect because many of us have walked by a protest or watched someone get bullied and did not act. I obviously include myself in this. (And of course this is not to endorse going around and looking to put yourself in harm’s way to prove a point.) There were plenty of times I could act and did not. However, I told my class about the importance of learning how not to give into bystander effect. One way I have done this is by participating in protests and studying them (and I still would not claim to be perfect in this regard).

I also reiterated to my students—there are many reasons to protest and our job as scholars is to understand why. But, we also have to consider a basic, modern, human element—sometimes, you and others stand up, not just because you think you can win or you think you're starting a movement, you do it because you seek to maintain your’s and others' dignity and humanity. No one who stands in front of a tank or throws rocks at the tank does so because they believe they will win. Sometimes they engage because they care more about the people they're defending than they do achieving some sort of policy change and that has to be enough.

Black folks engaged in all sorts of actions against Jim Crow and not all of them were judged based upon whether or not they got a law changed or successfully overturned segregation. Some folks (obviously many were connected to the movement) challenged white power because they were pissed and refused to submit in that moment. That's about dignity. And, sometimes, dignity, has to be enough.

Some recommended reading/sources about this topic:

Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

James Lawson, with Michael K. Honey and Kent Wong, Revolutionary Nonviolence: Organizing for Freedom

Staughton Lynd, Accompanyment: Pathways to Social Change

Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks

“Who the Hell is Diane Nash,” from Freedom Riders PBS Documentary