The Phenomenological Power of Protest

Photo from The Burning Platform

When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him                                                                            

 Bayard Ruskin

DR. CLANTON C.W DAWSON, JR.
In the wake of ‘no indictment’ by grand juries in Missouri and New York for the white officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner, protest demonstrations have occurred in over 170 cities throughout the United States. On Friday December 6, a group of protesters gathered at the State Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo to protest the bogus judicial process orchestrated by Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch and the ineffective leadership of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Since then numerous protests have occurred in California, New York, Cleveland, and Miami and in cities throughout the United States. Even NBA figures like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have joined the chorus of protest.

A local preacher asked me, “Why should we in Mid-Missouri be so concerned about what happened in Ferguson, MO--and by extension--New York City, Cleveland, OH, etc.?” “After all,” he stated, “we have our own problems in Columbia, Jefferson City, Boonville, Springfield, Fulton, Marshall, and Sedalia and throughout central Missouri. We should be more concerned about home than there!”

After pondering the question seriously, it is apparent to me that this brother has either forgotten or is unaware of the phenomenological power of protest. While thousands of people of every race and creed have united to physically stage protests as a call for justice, sadly this preacher is not alone in his sentiment. Too many preachers/pastors have chosen to remain silent about the obvious disparity in the manner in which police engage African Americans and the subsequent lack of judicial credulity afforded Black and Brown Americans. They refuse to raise their prophetic voice to challenge how African Americans are harassed, followed in stores and markets, mistreated, denied due process, and die suspiciously in the back seat of police cars (remember North Carolina?). The treatment of Anglo Americans receive from both the police and the courts is qualitatively different from the treatment people of color experience. We are called as clergy to stand. The passivity articulated by my brother preacher, and demonstrated by too many silent pulpits in America, positions clergy, Black and white, on the wrong side of history.

Protest is rooted in lament: it is the expression of objection to systems and states of affairs that rob human beings of their dignity and humanity. As such, protest arrests the consciousness of a society and makes us look squarely at the injustice brought before us. Its phenomenological quality has the unique ability to make us ‘sense’ the outrage and desperation of the victims of injustice. It is this ‘sensing’ that we are witnessing with protesters across the country—Black, Anglo, Latin, male, female, gay, straight--who directly or indirectly are victims of racial injustice. They have joined the fight because they understand the question (why did this happen?) and have been captured by the phenomenological power of protest. All of us, particularly young Americans, realize that what happened in Ferguson, Cleveland, and New York can happen anywhere in America.

Protests transforms a person from being a disinterested observer to active participant. The protests make us look at ourselves and the situation. No one can ‘remain’ removed from the situation. Socrates was right when he stated that ‘to know the good is to do it.’ The massive protests that have taken place in over 170 cities across America evidence the fact that when rational people see injustice, and realize it is wrong, they must do something about it. They protest.

The protests have changed the conversations of Americans in every coffeehouse, hair salon, corner store, basketball game in this country. People of different racial groups and ages have been awakened: no longer are people standing by quietly. There is a movement before us. It is larger than Michael Brown or Eric Garner. It is a movement that recognizes that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.

Bayard Ruskin was correct. Protests bestows dignity upon those who have experienced the robbery of dignity. The phenomenon of protest changes the conversation from one of political practicality to moral insistence. Even the racists of Rosebud, MO who greeted NAACP protest marchers with fried chicken, 40 ounce bottles of beer, melons, and racial slurs realize that the moral universe is holding all of us responsible for our actions. The world they want no longer exists. The protest exposes who and what they are, and illuminates our moral character as well. An old saying from my era still rings true—“you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution”---there is no middle ground.

Protest reminds us that every life is important. Black lives do matter. The fact remains that too many young (and older!) African American males are being targeted as “the enemy” in this country. The xenophobia operative in too many police departments across this country must be challenged. There exists a marked difference between how the police and judicial processes treat people of color in this society and how Anglo Americans are treated. It is not Black paranoia, it is a lived reality. It is painfully clear that the way justice is exercised in this country pronounces that Black lives are irrelevant—they neither are worthy of moral consideration; nor, are people of color full citizens under the Constitution of the United States of America. Ferguson, and now New York, call our attention to the duplicitous nature of ‘equal justice under the law.’ Protest, however, declares that all citizens are due their day in court. Michael Brown and Eric Garner were robbed of due process. Every citizen ought to have access to ‘equal justice under the Law.” Protest spotlights that what we claim as a nation is not what is experienced by too many Americans. 

I believe in the phenomenological power of protest. The Biblical prophets, social and political philosophers and thinkers of every era, and my ancestors believed in its power. Protest renews my hope for change. Protest reminds me that if I work the work before me, “… trouble won’t last always…!” As a Christian, African American, and fellow human being who understands that I am my brother’s and sister’s keeper—I must protest injustice. For all who protest injustice stand on the Lord’s side. God stands on the side of justice. I am convinced that at the eschaton, and the Universe will cry out9o, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” I want to stand with men and women of every nation, from every historical epoch, and declare without reservation, “Here I am Lord, here I am!”