Climate Strike Observations: Why was it so white?
At the beginning of the climate strike, there weren't that many people since it was just Uni kids. It was surprising though that there wasn’t a massive turnout of Uni kids participating, considering we are a mostly liberal school, so you would think that people would show up and support the cause. I think for this particular cause though, not a lot of people at Uni are genuinely passionate about climate change as much as we would like to think.
When we started to march, it took a while for everyone to get comfortable with chanting, but once we found a good tempo, then it started getting more hyped up. I moved to the front because I wanted to hear the chants more clearly and also that’s usually where all of the super enthusiastic people are and it’s fun to be around people who are genuinely passionate about the cause as you are and you’re chanting together. There were some instances where I got to chant using the megaphone, and so I would turn around and look at the crowd while chanting, and it was a really nice feeling to see everyone chanting together, all unified.
The one thought that kept nagging me in the back of my mind was the lack of diversity of people that had participated in the strike. When I looked into the crowd, it was predominantly white, even the people who had planned the strike were all white. It made me wonder because UIUC is an extremely diverse campus, so the fact that there were very few people of color that participated was confusing to me. I also had another thought that clouded my mind when I noticed how large the crowd had gotten after the college students got out of their classes, “ would this many people come out to a strike/protest that was fighting for black, Latino, Muslim, etc. causes?”
The honest answer would be no. I saw it with my own eyes. The week before the climate strike, there was a protest against the brutal mistreatment of people in Kashmir by India. I went to it of course, but there weren’t a lot of people that had participated, and everyone that was there was either Arab or Desi. I counted one white person in the crowd. The stark difference is revealing: despite the fact that climate change affects everyone, the crowd mainly consisted of white people, and when there’s a protest about a certain issue that affects minorities or certain minorities, it’s only those minorities that are affected by the issue that participate. Instead of being allies for one another, we chose not to. The question is: why?
PREACH SALMA. I had the exact same thought. Climate change is absolutely a pressing issue. And we need as many people as we can get to fight for the cause! But for every dedicated supporter fighting for our future, there's a flip side.
ReplyDeleteClimate change is relatively easy to get behind and support. A lot of people aren't super educated about the cause, they just know it's a good hill to die on, and so jump on the bandwagon in order to be seen as, like, super woke. The atrocities happening in Kashmir right now aren't as heavily publicized or accessible as that of climate change, which is a shame. Even more shamefully, because of this, I think a lot of people overlook it and atrocities like it that are happening in the world.
Attending the climate strike was truly an incredible experience. Knowing that the world is going through the 6th mass extinction and fighting to protect the homes and environments of the animals around the world is truly what the world needs right now.
ReplyDeleteI really like the point you made in relation to the violence going in Kashmir . The media only occasionally gives attention to this conflict even though many would classify this ongoing bloodshed as a tragedy. Without media attention, social media can't get a grasp of issues such as Kashmir or the Uighur population in China.
I had the same thoughts. I think it is easy to say that climate change affects everyone, while causes that involve black, latinx, muslim, lgbtqia+, etc. people are seen as more of a narrow group. The is just simply not true becuase teh people are connected and issues that may affect one person are going to ripple and impact everyone. It is also privilege. The fact that you don't have to march to have rights says enough. But when marching for issues so important, and ones that I am passionate about, I want to make sure that everyone is marching for the same reason and not to just get out of school. Great blog post, in your writing I like how you left it open ended, questioning the reader.
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