In-depth: Understanding the US student protests
The movement is at an inflection point, where it goes next is uncertain.
This issue is prompted by the simple reality that, a couple of days ago, I realized I knew very little about the pro-Gaza protests currently emerging at US universities. I had focused my energies elsewhere and had only engaged with the events through headlines.
To fix this problem, I decided to educate myself and share my learnings with the A6 audience.
The article below is an analysis piece. Feel free to comment or email me if you disagree, which I imagine a handful of you will.
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The basics of the US student protests
Widespread student protests have erupted at universities across America as students aim to put pressure on US policymakers and those in power to change their policies in support of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
The movement — and subsequent crackdown — accelerated over the past month, and over 2,300 people associated with the protests have been arrested.
The core goal of the protesters is to put pressure on the US to stop its support for Israel, hoping it would end Jerusalem’s war on Gaza, which they call a genocide.
Their primary strategy is to pressure universities to divest from companies associated with Israel, with the hope being that it will spook the corporate world to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to change his policies.
That strategy does not appear to have worked, as only a handful of schools — Brown, Northwestern and the University of Minnesota — have agreed to “hold discussions” about where their endowment money is invested. No school appears remotely close to actively divesting from pro-Israel companies.
What the protesters have achieved is capturing national attention and keeping the Israel-Gaza war on top of mind in American policymaking debates.
I commend the protesters for ensuring that the Israel bombardment on Gaza does not fall victim to the same fate endured by other global conflicts, which receive a spike in public sympathy and engagement before being forgotten as day-to-day life resumes.
Police began clearing encampments this week, and the NYPD’s entry into Colombia University was framed as a major red line crossed by the authorities.
Days before, at the University of Texas, police entered the campus and violently arrested dozens of protesters almost immediately when students tried to resist.
At the University of Oregon (my alma mater), the university president has issued vague threats towards the tent encampments and said the school would not divest from Hewitt Packard (a core local demand).
It does not seem like the situation in Gaza will animate the American voting patterns similarly to other touchpoints like abortion, gun rights and immigration. Only 7% of respondents to an NBC poll said it would impact who they voted for in the 2024 general election.
This past week, President Joe Biden attempted to straddle the fence, saying that the right to protest is a core tenant of American life and that “dissent should never lead to disorder.” The protesters were predictably underwhelmed by that statement.
I think it’s a real stretch to call these campus protests “disorder.” The movement has not disrupted daily life outside of activists, academics and journalists, which brings me to my core analysis.
The scale and impact of the movement is difficult to gauge
International A6 readers may read the news and imagine scenes similar to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) or Occupy Wall Street protest movements, but that is not the case.
Some protest supporters and media members have described the situation as “Biden’s Vietnam”, referencing the widespread national unrest prompted by the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
That comparison is an exercise in hyperbole.
I do think there are comparisons to the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s-1980s, which created real momentum and was a key driver in pushing South Africa to end its apartheid policies.
That movement was significant but didn’t rupture American society like the Vietnam protests and the BLM movement did.
That does not mean the Palestine protests won’t grow over the summer and become equivalent to the larger movements. But that would depend on whether we are at the beginning or the peak of the protests.
The other core difference between BLM/Vietnam and the Palestine protests is that, while the backlash certainly exists from the right, it feels performative. One outraged counter-protester launches a tirade on Fox News, but then it kind of stops, failing to enrage Fox’s audience.
We have not seen the institutionalized vitriol that the GOP directed at BLM. There is no equivalent to the “all lives matter” slogan or people waving those “blue line flags” that are still extremely common almost five years after BLM peaked.
Personal and institutionalized racism in America explains the anger directed at BLM. But this is not a BLM essay, so I will live it there to avoid a 5,000-word article. Here is a link to a good starting place if you’d like to learn more.
The interesting question for me is: Does an unmotivated countermovement indicate that the students enjoy broad support among the general American public?
I wonder if there is a large population of right-wing voters who don’t care about international politics and, upon hearing about the situation in Gaza, are sympathetic to their plight.
That thought may be naive, but I am struggling to understand why propaganda outlets like Fox News have pulled their punches on this issue.
What’s Next?
The next few weeks will be fascinating as students begin to take their finals and graduation ceremonies commence.
The ceremonies, in particular, are sure to be centers for protest, and it would be surprising if there were not at least a handful of incidents.
The real test for the movement will be this summer when school is out.
Will the general public rally around the students and help the protests break beyond the bubble of academia? Could it grow into a real summer of disaffection like in 2020?
Or, will it fizzle out as organizers struggle to rally a broader electorate who may not be as animated by the war?
Nobody knows the answer to those questions; we’ll just have to wait and see.
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A lot of these protests feel performative. Maybe I'm just showing my age here, but when one of the protest leaders at Columbia is calling for the university to guarantee food deliveries to the school, it just... I dunno...seems to undercut it all. I mean, if you're gonna take a stand, you should be willing to go all in, ya know?
Hi Kevin, I really need this kind of balanced and on-the-ground analysis about what’s happening in the US. I assume that many people who live outside US will need this. Please do more of these!