This is a post in response to to Abi Ishola's Scripts and Sightings Post "
Headwraps, Hoodies, and Denim: How Clothing has shaped Protests and
Revolutions." Ms. Ishola has written an excellent post on the powerful
influence clothing can make for calls to action no matter whether it is about
protesting a serious political issue or just demanding change for a better
existence.
While this post first focuses on the social media outcry in response to the
recent kidnapping of the 200 Nigerian girls from their school in Chibok by the
Nigerian Islamic terrorist group, Boka Haram, I was also struck by her
additional accounts of public protest using fashion and clothing.
For instance, the 1976 "Soweto Uprising" about the
protest in regards to the Afrikaans Medium Decree declaring Afrikaans as the official
language for instruction in school. After
further research I totally understand and agree with their cause, however, I
was surprised that the account of this protest on the blog post and reports in
the news are slightly contradicting. According to the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk), it
was not the police that started the violence that day, but it was angry youths that
began the protest throwing stones and bottles at the police. Ms. Ishola's
account claims the police started the racial violence. Who is really to
blame for the violence, death and destruction that happened that day?
After my research, my first question to Ms. Ishola is “which
account is correct and if the youths protesting were actually to blame, then
what made them think that throwing stones and bottles at police and invoking the
violence was the way to get their message across? Did they not think the police
would retaliate?
The unfortunate reality is that the solidarity of wearing
school uniforms was completely obliterated by their actions that day, albeit it
did get the attention of the media and the world. But to what end...over 700
kids lost their lives that day. If you are going to play with the big boys, you
have to learn to play the game first before breaking any rules.
A perfect example of how a peaceful act can speak more loudly is
the account of four African American men on February 1, 1960 sitting at the all
white’s lunch counter of F.W. Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C.
demanding to be served. These men drove
their point home about ending segregation at the lunch counter by dressing and acting
professionally to change people's perceptions.
According to the New York Times (The Learning Network, New
York Times), this demonstration garnered a lot of attention and inspired the
movement to spread throughout North Carolina to Virginia, Florida, South
Carolina and Tennessee, eventually involving fifteen cities. Typically, reactions varied because sometimes groups of white men would heckle, elbow, jostle and shove the
protestors, but in the end, it was a successful movement.
In response to this very successful movement, my second
question to Ms. Ishola is whether or not it was actually their clothing or was it the
peaceful manner that they protested with that eventually pushed the issue and
making strides towards equality? If they had come in a different mode of dress,
yet still acted peacefully, would Woolworth's been more apt to call authorities and force them to leave or would they have achieved the same outcome? Besides
believing originally that this was just some college prank, why were the police
not brought in to stop the demonstrations? Weren't these men technically breaking the law according to the states that the protests took place in?
In addition, the quiet protest of the African American residents
of Huntsville Alabama boycotting the stores that they normally purchased
dresses and suits for Easter Sunday spoke volumes. By not shopping and wearing Blue Jeans, they
certainly got their point across by hitting the retailers where it hurts
most…their pockets.
In response to this boycott, I ask Ms. Ishola, do you think
this protest/boycott would be successful today and if so, being that jeans are more prevalent today than they may have been then would
people today have the discipline to withstand a boycott like this?
Another movement that has garnered much attention is a protest that has been initiated to stop
brutality against opposition in Venezuela bringing an immense amount of media
attention opposing the government and their actions. The movement is called
#BetterNakedThan and has gotten people to pose naked in their facebook and
twitter posts as a criticism of their government. For instance, According to a
blog post by Elias Groll on blog.foreignpolicy.com “Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro denied that he used excessive force to put down intense
anti-government protests, which left as many as 39 dead” (Groll). According to
the Huffington Post,
“President Nicolás
Maduro and opposition politicians agreed on Tuesday to hold talks in an attempt
to defuse the crisis, in which at least 39 people have been killed, the
Associated Press reported.”
The #BetterNakedThan protest tactic was started after several
masked male government supporters stripped a student of his clothing and beat
him up because of a confrontation with anti-government protesters at the
Central University of Venezuela in Caracas (Groll).
According to BBC Mundo, this campaign started with
advertising executive, Ricardo Cie who was outraged by the footage of the
student being beaten and got some friends to post nude photos in solidarity
with this student. (Huffington Post)
From there the movement took off with many Venezuelans
posting images with captions such as:
- Better naked than humiliated and silenced by the violence
in our Venezuela.
- Better naked than without hope.
- Better naked than dead, without education, without food,
without culture, without dreams.
- Better naked than to allow the continued restriction of my
rights.
- Better naked than with hatred and no future.
While this protest is the polar opposite of protesting with articles of
clothing it is just as relevant and protesting without clothing and adding the captions that are with them…
just as powerful and unforgettable.
Sources
Groll, Elias, http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/04/09/now_venezuelans_are_taking_off_their_clothes_to_protest
Alfred, Charlotte,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/venezuela-better-naked-than-photos_n_5119259.html?utm_hp_ref=world,
The World Post, April 9, 2014
http://www.nytimes, The
Learning Network, New York Times,
Feb. 1, 1960: Black Students and the Greensboro Sit-In, February 1, 2012
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