Essays on Protest

Protests, peaceful or violent, have been around for as long as this country has been alive. Ways to protest, reasons to protest, how protests can affect America and concerns regarding protests have changed over time but one thing that will always remain the same is an individual's entitlement to their own opinion. A protest can begin when a group of people with similar views, disagree or agree on something they feel strongly against or strongly about. Whether it is protesting constitutional ...

The Social Movement Group, Black Lives Matter (BLM), emerged from a hashtag on Twitter in 2013 when George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, United States. The movement rekindled into what it is today after the killing of African-American man Michael Brown in 2014 by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. The movements original focus was on the issue of police brutality against African Americans in the United States, but has ...

The ‘me too.’ movement was founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly Black women and girls, and other young women of color from low wealth communities, find pathways to healing. In October 2017, the movement began to spread virally on social media as a hashtag in an attempt to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in workplace. Me too movement has a huge impact around the world. Tarana has embraced # MeToo's ...

Public space provides the public with a sphere to express their opinions and objections on issues surrounding the government, status quo, and historical events. With a the shrinking of public space becoming a real notion, the public sphere has adapted and moved its outlet to social media. This paper will discuss the movement away from physical land and towards social media within the context of protests and will examine a particular protests, The Occupy Wall Street Movement, as an case study ...

One of the actors of the film "Everyday Rebellion" – Srđa Popović, is an activist of the Serbian movement “Otpor” (Resistance). This was a movement supporting the destruction of the regime of Slobodan Milošević. In 2003, after a short political career in Serbia he established the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies. CANVAS worked with pro-democracy activists promoting the use of non-violent resistance to achieve political and social objectives. In contrast, I would like to ...

1968 appears as a significant and unique year through history. There are plenty of historical events that occurred in this particular year, and almost within a six-month period. The May Events in Paris, Prague Spring and the Massacre in Mexico all happened in 1968. It seems that this three events have no relevant relationships, no same courtiers that occurred, no correlated reasons to happen and no similar results that caused in the history. But in that particular year, there is something that ...

The most respectable trait a person can have is the capability to stand up for what they believe in and fight for their right no matter what the situation is. The “Tank Man", also known as the “Unknown Protestor” or “Unknown Rebel” possessed this honorable quality. The world-renowned photograph of him confronting a column of tanks in the Tiananmen Square in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 was captured by Jeff Widener from the balcony of the Beijing Hotel in China where ...

After years of growing resentment over Ortega's abuse of power, the president’s decision to implement social security reforms that raised taxes while reducing pension benefits was the final straw. On April 18, peaceful demonstrations, led by elderly individuals, university students, and other activists, erupted throughout the country. These were met by violent resistance from government authorities: censoring independent media, arming pro-government mobs with weapons, and using live ammunition ...

Twenty-year-old Anna Dovgalyuk posted a YouTube video of herself pouring bleach on the crotches of men sitting with their legs far apart on public transport. Dovgalyuk stated that the solution will leave ‘an unwashable stain’ and claimed that it was an act of protest against manspreading, which she described as a ‘public disrespect for women. ’ The video went viral and had almost a million views within a day of its upload, but received far more dislikes than likes, and drew outrage from men ...

The political atmosphere in Germany continues to grow with intensity as recent protests from the far right against refugees increase. The tension has stood since the beginning of refugee acceptance in Germany but has increased amidst murders by foreigners throughout the last two years. In 2016, in Freiburg, Germany, a university student was raped by a man seeking asylum. The woman was left near a bed of water ultimately leading to her death by drowning. In another case, on August 16th, 2018, a ...

Protest movements have sprung difficult conversations in order to create social change, and the impact social media has made on these topics has allowed conversations to be talked about in new ways. Since the shooting and killing of Black teenager Trayvon Martin by police officer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, led to an unforgettable movement that sparked viewers attention from all over the U.S. The protest hashtag #BlackLivesMatter amplified critiques of the killing of Black Americans. ...

On June 1989 in Beijing, China, what started as a protest at whose treatment grew in momentum, emboldened, the protestors wrote a list of demands where they poured onto Tiananmen Square. About a hundred-thousand students and workers had defied their dictator, all camped out near the T-Square as they demanded for change. It was only a matter of time before it captured the world’s attention, while the communist party scrambled with the mass movement. A spirited resistance carried on until the ...

I woke up one beautiful Saturday morning thinking “What was Gandhi going to get himself into this time.” When I started driving in my red honda to fox 5 news, to work I saw Gandhi. Of course, gathering up people wanting to start a protest. So once I got to work I immediately told the lazy staff and we headed out to do a descriptive report on his beliefs and actions to help his culture. We soon realized he was trying to peacefully break a law which was to lead people to the sea and collect ...

There was a peace agreement Maoist and the Nepal Government in 2006. After the peace agreement high ranking Madeshis observe that they were relegated to the sidelines and experienced inequality. As a result, a large number of supporters from Terai broke away from the Maoist main stream to start their own movement utilizing the indigenous social mobilization tactics to strategically attack the state. The principle demand is the “liberation” of the entire Terai into a single autonomos state ...

America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. But for African Americans and other people of color, the fight for equality remains a bitter struggle. The NFL players who kneel or raise their fists during the national anthem are protesting police brutality and racial inequality. The countless murders of unarmed black men by police officers and a criminal justice system riddled with racial disparities are Jim Crow-era issues. These silent, peaceful and non-violent ...