On Friday, December 5, a group of Fairfield University students gathered around the Stag statue in protest in regards to the legal and social issues that have subsequently come about from the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The protestors wore caution tape around their mouths and held signs saying things like, “#ICantBreathe”, “#BlackLivesMatter”, and “…The State established by definition is not neutral.” Following the protests around the Stag, on Wednesday, December 10, students gathered in the lobby of the library to stage a die-in. Through their demonstrations, these students hoped to raise awareness of the racial inequality present in today’s culture.
While the actions of the protestors were peaceful during both demonstrations, the reactions from Fairfield students on Friday were everything but. Almost immediately after the protestors chained themselves to the Stag in silent protest, Yik-Yak exploded with students voicing their disproving attitudes towards the protest. These yaks included statements such as, “Can we protest the protestors blocking our school mascot?”, “If you want to meet the only liberals on campus, go to the stag now! It’s a rare find”, “And a big f*ck you to the ignorant f*cks protesting”, and “#whitelivesmatter”.
Fr. Jeffrey Von Arx, SJ, president of Fairfield University, sent an email to the entirety of the student body expressing his disappointment with the way students acted towards the protestors and showing he stood in solidarity with them. In his address, Fr. Von Arx describes how most students regarded the protesters calmly, while other students shouted obscenities and confronted their peers with hostility. He stated, “Regardless of the particular issue or our particular view, it’s important that each of us individually and collectively model the open and collegial spirit critical to a learning community and resist the tendency toward angry rhetoric or personal attack.”
One Yik-Yak user sent in perhaps the most disturbing yak from that day, “If I was the cop I woulda shot 12 times.” Other horrible responses included “People like these protesters are the only ones keeping racism alive today” and “Protestors about police? Goes to show 5% pampered kids at Fairfield are ignorant. All the rest understand that people need to move on.”
The responses to the protest portrayed more white privilege and racism than the protestors ever could. The students who partook in these peaceful demonstrations were simply trying to raise awareness of racist ideologies that still exist today, even on our campus. They didn’t deserve to receive the remarks of ignorant people on Yik-Yak for standing up for what they believe in.
When asked what the objective of the protest had been, Dr. Kris Sealey, Associate Professor of the Philosophy Department at Fairfield University, told me, “They decided to use the national (and well, international) outcry against the tragedies in Ferguson and Staten Island as a platform to highlight what happens right here, on our campus, every single day. So I guess I’d say that their hope was (and is) that their direct action begins a conversation about how our campus culture is one of white privilege and how that culture affects the students of our community who are not members of that privileged group.”
After the original protest on December 5, a larger group of students gathered in the front entrance of the Dimenna-Nyselius Library. This time, instead of standing together in silent protest, the students lay on the floor of the lobby and staged a die-in, a common form of protest where demonstrators lay on the ground as if they were dead. Often used by peace activists and human rights activists, die-ins have been happening all around the country as a result of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Just as with the first protest, Fairfield University students took to Yik-Yak to voice their opinions on the actions being taken. While the yaks began with statements such as, “I’m not saying police brutality is okay. But laying on the ground of the library during finals week isn’t fixing it!”, “Can this not be in the library?”, and “#whiteprivilege is being able to pay 60k a year to go to a private University and then blow off studying for exams to lay on the floor of the library and pretend you are changing anything.”
However, the yaks then took a different turn. Users responded to the first round of yaks with statements such as, “We go to a Jesuit university. Racial justice is social justice. Thank you protestors”, “Actually disgusted that I go to a school with so many of you racist a**holes. Let them protest, it’s a free country”, and “It was a 17 minute protest for all of those saying ‘they should be studying for finals.’ Their 17 minute study break did more good than you refreshing your social media ever will.”
This time, students at Fairfield seemed to finally understand where the protestors were coming from. What the Yik-Yak users originally didn’t understand was that the students protesting were not trying to be racist. Their objective wasn’t to put black lives above white lives. The protestors wanted to raise awareness of the white privilege that is present on our campus, in our culture, and in our world. Black lives matter. White lives matter, too. All lives matter.