Making Protests Convenient For White People
I’m not sure how much coverage this is receiving outside of the Toronto, Ontario/Canada news media, so I’d like to call it to everyone’s attention.
The below-linked article is not meant to be representative of the final word on the Tamil protest; it’s just a short summary introduction to the issue.
Toronto highway reopens after Tamil protest disperses
One of Canada’s major expressways reopened early Monday after thousands of members of Toronto’s Tamil community ended a five-hour occupation of the roadway without incident.
The blockade of the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto ended shortly after midnight. It was part of the Tamil community’s continuing protest campaign to demand the Canadian government do more to help end the bloody 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka.
Read the rest of the article here.
I followed this protest as it unfolded on the TV news last night and was really dismayed by the reactions of the mostly-white commuters to the situation. They were very irritated at the inconvenience of being stuck on the highway and one man even suggested that the Tamil protesters should find a more “legal” way to protest (a sentiment echoed by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty here).
Besides my feeling that a “legal protest” is not just an oxymoron, but an exercise in futility, I am somewhat stunned by the idea that a few hours of inconvenience are even on the same level as the genocide that is apparently taking place in Sri Lanka.
The whole point of a protest is to disrupt the “normal” flow of things to make a statement. I have also noticed the coverage the Tamils have been getting lately has seemed to conflate “protest” with “demonstration.” It was only yesterday that the media even stated what it was that they were actually protesting against. By not mentioning that, it completely reduces their cause and paints them as “angry brown people” which is shortsighted and unfair, not to mention racist.
If more groups of people would demonstrate in this manner, it would give more weight and credence to the actual act of protesting. You can’t just demonstrate when it’s convenient for you. If you aren’t risking your health, safety, or job, then it’s an empty gesture.
This issue shows how me and my fellow white people are so wrapped up in our own privileges that we can’t CONCEIVE that people might have problems greater than traffic jams or missing the season finale of some bullshit TV show. It’s so selfish and horrible it makes me ashamed and embarrassed.
Other commenters on the incident have called the Tamil demonstrations “terrorist” acts, and claimed they are holding the city of Toronto “hostage.” How in the HELL is a demonstration on the same level as terrorism? Do people who say that even know what terrorism means? (Probably not since George Bush and his media cronies substituted the word “terror” for “terrorism” so many times they devalued the word’s definition.)
I have also heard more than one “those people” types of comments too, as in “if those people want to protest…” I just cannot wrap my head around this crap. Does something have to affect only white people for us to care?
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Thank you for writing this! I’ve heard comments echoing the “those people” statements. or the “third-world immigrants” and how they should do this in their OWN country.
Which is an interesting point, if someone legally immigrates to a country – that would make the new country… their country.
So that is exactly what they’re doing ;)
reading this article is a nice balance to all the ignorance I’ve been reading that’s making me so sad.
I’m glad you liked this piece. Since I’m not a citizen here, I can’t vote, but that sure as hell won’t keep me from voicing my opinions!
The Tamils are totaly out of line man. They came to this country to escape the war, and now there trying to drag us into their conflict, there are 300,000 of them here in Ontario, that would make a pretty good force to fight the shri lankan army. After weeks of protesting in front of the us embassy we gave them 3 million of our tax payer dollars and they still want more. If the tamils had played by the rules of engagement, something would have been done by now, but sence they’ve decided to take off their uniforms and fight guerilla style, seeding there groups with women and childern, they’ve lost the sympathay of the international community. They made a bed, now they gotta lay in it.
People are using the word terrorism and terrorist far too quickly and easily. The BBC very once called the IRA a terrorist group in the 20+ years of its coverage of the Troubles before the Good Friday agreement due to the provocative and implicit biased nature of the word, a very admirable example. Unfortunately in this case I think people are also using the term racist far too fast which can muddy arguments, discussion and debate beyond repair. I don’t think it is just white people that dislike being inconvenienced but individual members of pretty much any race? Just as most, if not all individuals would be understandably very upset if they felt the plight of family and friends was being ignored by media and governments that could act to help them. However, I have seen many comments on city blogs and news sites that are just gross and obviously to nothing to forward discussions on the unfolding situation.
Legal protests (at least in my experience as a protestor) are effective and I am sorry that during your experiences as a protestor you have not felt that way. They do disrupt and draw attention to a cause (2003 anti war marches a great example) they also lend themselves well to communicate a cause, as participating groups register with their cause, stance and spokespeople known. I don’t think that many Canadians really understand what the current Tamil protest is for and that is likely what is causing the frustrations. I don’t think that more protests, legal or not will change that lack of knowledge or lack of understanding. Prevention of media access to the area (the fantastic Nick Paton Walsh was recently deported http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2009/05/10/sri-lankas-rajapaksa-tells-channel-4-news-to-leave/) leaves many of us scraping at what little facts we can find and scarily it all feels a bit Rwanda-like where neither the government or factionist (for lack of a better word) can be believed and many innocent people are being killed.
Also – your claim that it wasn’t until yesterday that the media started reporting what the protest/protests was about doesn’t sound right to me. Locally, The Star along with The Sun and news radio have been covering the protests and the reasons behind them (they came up with a few different spokespeople with different reasons as to why) since mid April. Internationally coverage has been more comprehensive.
sorry that was ‘The BBC never once’
Thanks for your thoughts, Kate.
In response:
1. I agree that saying, “You’re a racist!” to another white person does tend to bring a swift halt to communications, which is why I don’t state it in those terms above. I would like to see more community reaction from people of color in the media; I think that would be a more representative sampling of what people outside of the Tamil-Canadian community think about this issue.
2. It’s not that I think one form of protest is more effective than another; it’s that the continued sampling of public response seems to demand that protests be legal. I don’t think that’s fair to the protesters. It smacks of, “you can protest but it has to fit our definition of acceptable protest” and I find that very paternalistic and limiting.
3. My comment about the media stating what the protest was about was not worded correctly. What I should have said was that the media was not reporting what specific government response the protesters sought via their actions, i.e., economic and diplomatic sanctions.
I don’t think it is accurate to compare the simple inconveinence of not using the Gardiner to the pain in Sri-Lanka. If anyone compares that, they are most likey missing the real point.
Instead, it should be looked upon as what it really is. A protest that was not executed in the correct manner, and lasted far too long because of that. If you say there should be no acceptable definition of what a protest should be, why have any laws at all then? Laws bring order, and order is what people want and is what modern civilization is based on. So make your protest according to the law. This is a civil country after all.
It will still be brodcasted but even if it is to a lesser extent, that will not increase symapthy or understanding for their cause, in fact, as a Canadian, I feel it damaged them quite badly in the eyes of the citizens of Canada, assuming it could get any worse already being labled a terrorist orginization.
So in short, it only fueled ignorance, intollerance and rascism. Lets be honest, there is a lot of that out there already. Why not catch a fly with honey instead?
No one was injured, so the protest *was* done in the correct manner, assuming the protesters made some allowance for ambulance traffic. People may believe they are being honest when the ask people to protest in a way that is not inconvenient, but deep down I think you know that if they did something ignorable, you’d have ignored it.