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Note from the Editor and Publisher: We at Historianspeaks are thrilled to bring you our 500th blog. This four year journey (2020-2024) has been a very insightful one. We have documented the COVID-19 crisis, the Black Lives Matters Movement, and a host of domestic, international, social and political events over these years. We are proud of our work and we invite you to utilize our pages to document this momentous period in Black life. Thank you for your support and we look forward to another 500 blogs.
Stephen G. Hall, PhD
The ongoing war in Palestine between Israel and Hamas has chilling outcomes around the world. Daily we witness the images of bombed out neighborhoods and hospitals in Gaza. We see millions of Palestinians, innocent civilians driven from their homes becoming overnight refugees. Humanitarian organizations struggle to feed swelling refugee populations. Israelis have taken to the streets of Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem calling for the return of the October 7th hostages and an end to the conflict.
At home, we have watched student protests engulf college campuses. Images of peaceful encampments set upon by police in riot gear. Students dragged from encampments, faculty members manhandled, tossed around like rag dolls, arrested and detained. What should we make of these developments? How should we think about student protest: as an expression of the 1st Amendment or as a disruption of law and order ? Should we see these protests as spontaneous outbursts by an uninformed mob or demonstrations of civil disobedience? To answer this question it is useful to turn to Malcolm X. He once said: History is best qualified to reward our research.” The history we must refer to now is the recent history of protest, the Black Lives Matter and how it serves as a model and case study for how the media, law enforcement have treated student protestors. Students have deployed the tactics of civil disobedience: mass mobilization, sit-ins, takeovers of campus buildings, etc to further their aims ranging from divestment, cease-fire, restricting American involvement, or an outright end to the Israel-Hamas conflict. These tactics taken from the labor struggle, the anti-war movement, and the freedom struggle among Blacks, especially the Black Lives Matter movement have proved effective. They have not only brought widespread attention to their efforts, but have galvanized and rallied others to engage in similar actions. Undeterred by “law and order” frameworks, attempts to erroneously define their efforts as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel and the “outside agitator” label which is used to minimize and trivialize the intellectual and political sophistication of the student protestors, student protestors on college campuses continue to make their demands.
When we talk about the recent student protests, the most immediate parallel is with the Black Lives Matter movement. Formed in response to the senseless murders of Black men and women who in 2012, the BLM movement, an extension of the focus on Black humanity articulated in the Civil Rights movement, Black feminist struggle and Anti-Apartheid movement, highlights the need to accentuate Black humanity. Like the student protests, BLM contended with the issue of protest, riot, and law and order. They also contended with language used to define the struggle and charges of anti- whiteness in the use of the term Black Lives Matter. Lastly, the outside agitator label was prominently used in explaining the activities of the group.
The issue of whether student protests were protests or riots and how to contain them has been at the center of much of the coverage and commentary. Students maintained their protests were peaceful efforts to highlight the treatment of Palestinian civilians in the ongoing conflict in Gaza. They established peaceful encampments, more than 120, at numerous American colleges and universities, including Columbia, Indiana, Emory, Ohio State, UT-Austin, CCNY, NYU, UCLA, University of Chicago, UNC and PENN, just to name a few. Often without provocation or an actual violent event, universities began to view these protests as threatening the safety of Jewish students. This occurred despite the fact Jewish students, some of whom were associated with Hillel on college campuses, did not agree with the protests but did not see them as threatening. Fueled by congressional hearings and law and order rhetoric, campus police supported by local and state police appeared on campus to dismantle the encampments. The police presence often led to skirmishes between protestors and police.
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BLM protests were treated in much the same way same way as student protestors. Commentators and critics questioned the motives of the protestors. Many looked for ways to discredit the cause. During the protests in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the media wondered if the protestors would be nonviolent. Others questioned whether or not the shooting of Michael Brown was justified or not. Several peaceful marches between August 9th and August 13th, 2014 turned violent. Small marches and memorials were viewed as threatening after unknown protestors burnt down a Quikstop and vandalized local businesses. Police escalated their response during each subsequent march deploying riot gear, helicopters, tear gas, rubber bullets, and several military style vehicles and a fully armed SWAT team. The police were heavily criticized for their use of what many considered excessive force against protestors due to the arrest and detention of individuals exercising their 1st Amendment rights. Critics also pointed to several incidents of police destroying the gear of reporters who were trying to document the event. Moreover several reporters were arrested during the protest.
Another significant part of the student protest has been the use of language. Some have argued that the protest have denied the civil liberties of Jewish students and are inherently antisemetic. This framing has served as a pretext to dismantle the encampments but nothing could be further from the truth. Support for Palestine is not a zero-sum game. In fact, groups such as Jews for Palestine and Jews for Peace are inherently opposed to the Israeli government’s policies but that does not equate with hatred of Israel or antisemitism. A similar tactic was used during the BLM protests. Use of the term “Black Lives Matter” was used to make a binary and reductionist argument that Black people were largely excluding other races from the benefits of humanity. Members of BLM were called “Black identity extremists.” Critics argued that “All Lives Matter” was a fitting alternative. This approach however was misleading and divisive. BLM in no way excluded other groups and the nature and history of the Black freedom movement demonstrates it has always been inclusive, multicultural, interracial, equalitarian and a model for subsequent movements as demonstrated in the current student protests on college campuses.
Lastly, the outside agitator label. This is one of the oldest and least persuasive explanations for protest activity. Nonetheless, the media and public have been convinced it is a logical explanation. For students, the inference is that they are too immature, unsophisticated or naive to plan a complex protest without the help of other influences. The media, commentators and law enforcement have gone to great lengths to show the influence of outside agitators. During the unrest at Columbia University, the police tried to demonstrate, unsuccessfully that a majority of those arrested were outside agitators. This did not prove to be true. Law enforcement tried to argue that the presence of a book on Terrorism was another example of outside influence. The book turned out to be a general introduction to the topic published in the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford university press. Others pointed to thick chains and locks and other paraphernalia found in Hamilton/Hinds hall. The thick chains turned out to be a bike lock sold at the university book store. At the UCLA encampment, the only outside agitators were a group of counter protests who attacked the pro Palestinian encampment while law enforcement failed to intervene. BLM faced similar accusations in Ferguson and other venues following the murder of innocent Black men and women. As protests devolved into riots, outsiders, often labeled as agitators, were blamed. This label was used to justify heavy handed tactics by law enforcement, curtailment or individual rights, arrest and detention of news media, the establishment of curfews, the use of SWAT teams and an appeal to law and order. This outside agitator label was to justify crackdowns, marginalization of protestors and avoidance of the legimate claims they were raising. However, no credible evidence was ever found of outside agitators in either the BLM or student protests.
The history of protest by various groups is a hallmark of our democracy. To understand and appreciate the richness of dissent enlivens our existence. It makes the United States the world’s best hope. The Black freedom struggle has always sought to make our country live up to its true creed and principles by accentuating the humanity of all Americans. This movement has fought for the freedom and dignity of every American to be a full participant in our democratic experiment. The student movement for Palestinians and Gaza as both a movement that is both rooted in and influenced by the Black freedom struggle has done much the same. It uses our most vibrant intellectual spaces, colleges and universities to critique the ills of society: poverty, militarism, social and economic exclusion and violations of civil and human rights. Rather than lambasting and marginalizing these movements, we would do well to embrace them. Given the times we live in, they may be the last best hope in preserving our Democracy.