A Reflection on Partaking in a Black Lives Matter Protest
Upon taking part in a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest and several webinars on allyship between social workers and oppressed groups partaking in social action, I feel it is relevant to explore my experiences in the protest. These experiences can be complemented with some of the literature that exists on activism. Having attended union protests as an organized labour supporter, the ideas around solidarity is not a new concept. While attending, observing, and counter-protesting other rallies that promoted economic (in)justice, I am not unfamiliar with the significance of protests in shaping discourse. I do, however, wish to further examine further considerations that I have not explored in detail when considering my role in social action. It is my intention to reflect on the most recent experience of the BLM protest and look at it in context with the literature on social action.
Reflecting on Personal Experience
The Protest Environment
Given the current political, social, and economic climate, the current BLM movement has had both prime opportunities and barriers that existed in the organizing process. Finding out about the protest through social media was an easy way to learn about the event itself, and was arguably a low/no-cost means of spreading the word. Hearing about the protest through Facebook, it was easy to find which community members that I knew would be attending or interested in attending. Furthermore, it was also easy to gain information on the desire of another group to counter-protest the BLM protest (with white/blue lives matter). Through the social media platform, the community police department weighed-in. Quickly released information of a police presence in a public security capacity (as opposed to partaking in the protest in a solidarity role), and made a statement confirming to counter-protesters that they would be able to attend. This allowed for attendees to quickly consider the risks of participating regarding the risk for conflict, as well as having advance notice of police presence if they did not want to be at an event with a police presence.
Two other key considerations are both the health environment and the physical environment. Taking place during a health pandemic, factors of public health and safety arose. There was no way in advance to know for sure how many people would attend, and one could only make educated guesses based on the number of “interested” and “going” metadata for the event through the platform. The difficulty in organizing in the health pandemic was if there was a violation of public health orders and if people could be penalized for attending an event. There was a significant turnout, and public health orders were not enforced at the event. To the credit of the organizers, they did request attendees to practice social distancing in advance – as well as asking all individuals to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). A significant portion of the attendees did comply with these requests, and speakers and leaders within the local movement demonstrated excellent leadership and role-modelling on this front by wearing PPE throughout the protest. This created an environment that sought to respect the co-occurring public health concerns, minimize risk, and create an atmosphere of safety. While no speakers discussed the common theme of safety between the two co-occurring social phenomena directly, it is noteworthy to point out that both the pandemic and systemic racism undermine some of the more basic needs. Such examples would be Maslow’s physiological and safety needs within his conceptual hierarchy (Chappell, 2014). The common thread between both co-occurring phenomena was something that continually came to mind for me throughout the event.
The physical environment came down to two factors – the timing and the weather. Given the impacts of public health orders and their economic impacts, the protest was within a perfect window of opportunity to take place. Disruption to regular societal routines may have provided flexibility for those who would typically not attend a protest to partake in this one. Being the most significant protest that I have seen in the community, and having a heavy young adult/youth presence, I suspect representation by groups typically preoccupied with school or work were able to attend. This may suggest that there is a broader progressive community within the locality than is generally acknowledged. It may indicate that when attendance barriers are removed, there is an opportunity to maximize attendance. It may also signal that the repeated assaults of black, indigenous, and other people of colour (BIPOC) has reached a critical turning point within younger-aged demographics. Regardless of which factor motivated the attendance, the turnout on a weekday in a pandemic was quite impressive.
I was also able to have some good conversations with protestors. Some individuals I spoke to had not thought of structural violence experienced by individuals of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) heritage. Opportunities to discuss disproportionate incarceration and illness arose. To not overshadow the significance of black lives, I framed by participation in the protest as seeking to improve the treatment of all who hold a BIPOC identity – a win for the black community strengthens the argument of not using violence against FNMI-identified persons. This was a new concept to some of the individuals I spoke with, so I was able to act as an educator.
Considering Personal Values
When I consider the primary values that compelled me to take part in the protest, my central core values aligned me with this social movement. My most significant value, solidarity, was inherently ingrained in the ideas that were behind the protest. Class consciousness, critical theory, intersectionality, and anti-imperialism all inform my decision-making that informs this value. Thus, I look at my own privilege and recognize that elements of it can be used to enhance the wellbeing of community members at large. This creates precedents within discourses that may one day address other disprivileges that I experience in my own life (Bishop, 2015). Furthermore, my response as an individual of intersectional privilege must not undermine or overshadow the messaging of the protest’s in-group (Bishop, 2015).
Another core value, health, may counter-intuitively be considered a unique variable in the BLM protests. While considerations were present in the assessment of risk and safety, exposure to elements and risk of counter-protests were also individually addressed within the health and safety domain. Organizers brought bottled water for participants, and I brought my own first-aid supplies, harm-reduction medical supplies, water, non-perishable food supplies (if there were any diabetics in the area), and PPE. Organizers were conscious of public health orders and made requests to comply with the health order expectations, allowing for natural alignment of the protest with my values. This helped alleviate concerns about attending – removing reasons to not partake. This created an environment rooted in the basic needs of safety.
Values around art and creativity were easily accessible through mediums such as protest signs. When creating protest signs, I look at the message, symbolism, typology, and aesthetics that are put into them. They are not a quick phrase written on cardboard but carefully-considered messaging of a point I want to get across. In the case of a BLM protest, as not someone directly impacted by the forms of oppression in question, messaging and metaphors had to be carefully selected to represent solidarity and discontent with social injustice. Careful consideration to dichotomize police as either inherently good or bad also needed to be portrayed. This takes the position that the systems create and legitimize racial injustice – thereby removing the argument that not all cops are bad cops is a sufficient answer to structural violence. Thus, the focus is on professional behaviours that are not acceptable and a need for legal caselaw that promotes social justice.
Things that Could be Enhanced
I consider this protest to be a significant success for the community. However, several things could have been improved. Unsure of the budget, these considerations do not suggest a pitfall of the social action in and of itself, but ideas I gained from participating in this experience.
The first consideration was sound. As speakers had a microphone they were speaking into, there was a focus on hearing the lived experiences of racism within our community. The sound system was insufficient for many community members to listen to those speaking. Many individuals were disappointed and frustrated by not being unable to listen to the speakers. Sound systems, noise bylaws, and the power needs for audio systems would all need to be weighed against the expected numbers of participants and their ability to hear the messages of those with lived experiences.
Another consideration, access to medical services, was key learning. One individual needed medical attention as a result of a non-violent incident that arose from the environment in the protest. This did prompt an EMS response. Individuals within the crowd did respond to the medical need until EMS arrived. While unsure of what contacts were made by organizers within the community, future considerations would include reaching out to both the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance to see if any volunteer responders would be willing to attend to medical needs. Such an approach provides an opportunity to build connections between a newly forming group and existing community resources. Similarly, as speaking of oppression may be triggering for BIPOC, partnering with the Canadian Mental Health Association (Alberta South-East Region) for volunteers to address any mental health concerns that arose may have also been a useful avenue to explore.
Feelings that Emerged from Participating
Participating in the protest led to feelings of pride, hope, and happiness. This was an event that showed our community coming together to take a stand on an issue that impacts an often unheard minority within our community. Participating allowed me to feel that I was taking a stand on a topic and adhering to my values. Seeing a community come together allowed me to not feel isolated in my position on the social injustice issue, which reduced my feelings of alienation within the community. Seeing the diversity within our community participants (both ethnically and by age) was humbling, and challenged many stereotypes that normalize the status quo. This gave me hope for the future of social justice within our community.
Purposeful use of Self in Future
Exploring Literature on Activism
Chan’s Exploration of Motivation
Exploring the literature can provide insights into what motivates individuals to partake in social action. In Chan’s (2016) exploration of participation in Hong Kong’s Occupy Central protest, he outlines some of the critical factors that influence the decision-making of participants. Motivation may be both strategic for out-groups with similar goals or compare their own positions with that of the in-group that is at the centre of the social action. Identity, or the constructed self in relation to constructed memberships with various participant groups, also can influence decision-making in participation. In this sense, the more common norms, values, shared goals, shared interests, and attitudes that exist between the participant and the social action in-group, the higher the likelihood that the individual will want to partake in the social action activity. Other influencing motivations include intra-group considerations (collective action to sustain a viable and extended social action movement), strategic considerations (collective actions enhancing the participant’s bargaining power and collaborative influence with the protest’s in-group, and individual considerations (such as adherence to personal values, beliefs, and ideology).
Chan (2016) also discusses “resource mobilization theory” as a key pathway in the decision-making process of social action. This theory can be thought of as an internal cost-benefit analysis in terms of the actions weighted against the expectation that the social action activity will successfully influence change. Similarly, this dovetails with an individual’s political efficacy — such as the individual’s degree of knowledge in politics and degree of knowledge in a government’s responsiveness to public demands. Being able to make an assessment of costs and benefits would then also be influenced by the wider political environment. This occurs by focusing on the individual’s perception of the capabilities of the group within the targeted change region and the degree of effort that is required of them to be a participant within the social action. From Chan’s (2016) perspective, the key motivators for participation are grievances, identity, efficacy, emotions, and moral convictions.
Other constructs within Chan’s model (2016) are “accelerators.” These are viewed as ways of amplifying the impact of the key motivators for participation in social action. He proposes that while accelerators can operate independently as motivators to participate, they can also trigger anger. Anger then intensifies the influence of motivational factors for participation in social action.
In the results of his experiment, Chan (2016) uncovered that government unresponsiveness to citizen demands was a key determining factor in participation. As the BLM movement has grown over time, presumably as a result of comprehensive reform to violence and racial disparities within the criminal justice system, it is notable that the concept of unresponsiveness, within the American and Canadian contexts, may contribute to the increased motivation for social action. Similarly, Chan found that in the Hong Kong context, anger alone had about a 1% variability in protest participation.
Professional Considerations
Noble (2015) notes the limitation to practice that has emerged as a result of neoliberalism. Looking at the radical social work roots of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Noble (2015) outlines the significance of critical theory. Critical theory is framed as a tool in anti-oppressive practice that can shift the focus of social problems residing within the individual, and look at the larger systems that create the conditions in which social problems can exist.
A new consideration that emerged from Noble’s (2015) article was the role of a social worker as an “agitator.” The role, previously unfamiliar to me, is derived from social work literature of the 1970s. Some of the gains discussed as a result of this role are described as government inquiries of oppressed persons and deinstitutionalization. Functions of this role would include conscious-raising, along with empowerment, advocacy, the active promotion of equitable redistribution of resources, and universal promotion of human betterment.
Similar to the “agitator” role, Grodofsky and Makaros (2016) discuss the role of social workers in Israel’s Social Protest Movement (ISPM) of 2011, where a small sample of workers became involved in the tent city that emerged as the movement grew. Grodofsky and Makaros (2016) note that participation in social action was generally low within the Israeli social work community – with about 9% of the sample having partaken in social action throughout their career. Disengagement from social action omits social workers from aiding in organizing, and outreach. Similar to my participation in the BLM protest, Grodofsky and Makaros (2015) note that many professionals participating in ISPM attended as private citizens – citing their professional mandate as a reason to participate.
While my attendance at the BLM protest was both personal values and professional values, it is noteworthy that only a small portion of the sample within the social work community of Grodofsky and Makaros study felt compelled enough to become engaged with ISPM. Through exploratory qualitative research, critical motivators to participation included the upkeep of the tent community, engagement at the national level, as assistance at the micro-level to persons impacted by social policies. Functions carried out include advancing relationships with diverse groups within the tent community, fostering solidarity of tent community members, and strategizing how to promote the ISPM movement.
Other significant considerations from Noble’s (2015) work was the importance of social workers to advance, participate in, and develop the capacity for social action to take place. Carrying out these functions is viewed as a component of the larger ideal of systems change. To do this, social workers should consider developing new alliances with service users and broader connections with coalitions to connect individuals and progressive groups together. One of the key gains in the ISPM movement was those social workers introduced of academics into the tent community. This sparked nationwide dialogue on the issues faced by tent community members and legitimized their concerns. Academics provided lectures to tent community members and provided consultation on the directions the movement could take. The establishment of coalitions between academics and protesters was a resource linkage function that can be transferred to practice in our own communities. Other services to advance this goal include a historical understanding of the social/biological processes of change, prioritization of social structure as a perpetrator of social problems, a transition from personal pathology to the structural nature of oppression (Noble, 2015). Additionally, the social worker can partake in egalitarian practices with service users, retelling successful stories and strategies of social action, providing alternative visions of society through multimedia, developing competency in a global analysis of local social problems.
Grodofsky and Makaros (2016) also noted several barriers that existed to participation in the ISPM movement. One was the tension between the desire to be both an organizer and address the individual social obstacles faced by those they networked with. This was found to be compounded by a lack of response from the governing social work organization and limited intra-professional solidarity. Without a professional governing body providing a guidance role, social workers had difficulty in their specific purpose and scope of practice within the movement. This suggests the significance of mandates/statements from governing organizations to guide practitioners through social movements is a critical component to legitimizing and mobilizing collective action within the profession itself.
Similarly, a lack of comprehensive discussion on protocols and mandates brought into question the best practices social workers could engage in while participating. Some social workers experienced sexual harassment and/or experienced the fear of physical danger. This impacted both those who attended the social action and those who did not participate in but considered attending. Thus, best practices and safety consideration documents from a regulatory/governing body may be especially valuable in the promotion of social action.
Digital Trends
In the role of a social worker, scholars such as Noble (2015) note the significance of social workers using culturally relevant tools, such as social media, in their conscious raising efforts of social justice. As indicated by Chan (2016), the use of digital platforms provides advanced notice to participants of the intentions of the social action event. This allows the participants to decide ahead of time on the potential consequences and achievements through their decision-making process.
Work by Young, Selander, and Vaast (2019) explores some of the considerations that emerge from the use of social media platforms to organize and mobilize individuals for social action. In the case of the community BLM protest, individuals could indicate both interest and intent to participate in the protest. Showing interest and intention is a useful tool to estimate numbers of attendees but may also make individuals vulnerable by becoming identifiable through the digital platform. Not mandating individuals to use the platform to indicate interest can either involve not-digital methods of tallying interest or using secondary digital platforms such as Eventbrite. If there are privacy concerns, however, the best option would be to go a non-digital route.
Another consideration is the malicious hijacking of platforms to distort the truth or sabotage social movements (Young, Selander, and Vaast, 2019). Digital activism can come from a wide array of interest groups and have varying degrees of impact. The now popularized “fake news” that can be posted to digital platforms can undermine the messaging of virtually organized groups if communication channels are left entirely open. Paradoxically, restrictions on communication channels can restrict the depth and breadth of discussion that may be useful in activism. Furthermore, given what had taken place recently in America, activism can also distort numbers of attendees expected for events (Aljazeera, 2020). Thus, reliance on digital platforms for metrics of support may not be reliable.
References
Aljazeera. (2020). Did TikTok users sabotage Trump’s Tulsa rally? Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/tiktok-users-helped-sabotage-trump-rally-tulsa-200621145931578.html
Bishop, A. (2015). Becoming an ally: Breaking the cycle of oppression in people (3rd ed). Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing.
Chan, M. (2016). Psychological antecedents and motivational models of collective action: Examining the role of perceived effectiveness in political protest participation. Social Movement Studies, 15(3), 305-321.
Chappell, R. (2014). Social Welfare in Canadian society (5th ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson Education.
Moshe Grodofsky, M., & Makaros, A. (2016). Social work and social protest: An under-researched field. Journal of Policy Practice, 15(4), 333-348.
Noble, C. (2015). Social protest movements and social work practice. International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences, 518-524.
Young, A., Selander, L., & Vaast, E. (2019). Digital organizing for social impact: Current insights and future research avenues on collective action, social movements, and digital technologies. Information and Organization, 29(3), 100257.