The Art of Protests and Social Movements

Mary Moua
ASA 002
Section A01
Blog Entry #2
10/2/15

The Art of Protests and Social Movements

 

In the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the reading provided details on the protest movement held by Berkeley students who fought for their right to free speech. The reading does a great job of acknowledging and summarizing the power and strength that students have that I don't think students themselves realize they possess.  Although it might not seem like students have a lot of power in that we're confined and limited to only doing so many things while also being overlooked by individuals like the chancellor or UC Regents who makes a lot of the big decisions that affect students, we really do have a lot of say about the school that we're attending. It's because of this power that students have that protests like the tuition hikes protest or the pepper spray incident that makes UC Davis known as the "Pepper Spray University" occur. We as students have been using our voices to stand up for what we believe in since a while back and we are still using it to this day. It's great that protests and social movements still continue to occur because it's one of the great ways to cause change.

 

Question: Are all protests effective? Why or why not?