Make racists afraid again. Feminism is for everyone. Muslim lives matter. Krusty Krab is unfair. These are just a few of the sayings Argos read on signs held up by their peers as they walk by John C. Pace Library during the week.
The peaceful protest outside of the library began with a student who goes by Joey. But there’s a new protestor on campus, one who doesn’t agree with sign protesting at all. His name is Micah Brunet.
Micah is a sophomore majoring in business management here at UWF. Micah was seen first on Feb. 28 holding a sign that read “Krusty Krab is Unfair!” Micah and his sign attracted quite a bit of attention on campus and was applauded by many fellow Argos that agreed with his statement.
Photo courtesy Abigail Megginson
Joey, the original “sign guy,” began protesting with signs about racial inequality. His original intent was to spark up discussions around campus about current political and social issues in the world. Joey has many fans, but also many haters.
Photo courtesy Rayanne Phelps
Micah Brunet is the new “sign guy.” Because of the nature and place of his protests, many believe he was reacting to Joey and his protesting.
However, he says that’s not the case. Micah said he has no personal vendetta toward Joey whatsoever. Instead, it was about the way Joey protests with signs.
Micah made it evident that he wasn’t there to bully Joey in any way. “I thought we were both just holding stupid signs.”
He felt like he was holding up a meme for his fellow students to laugh at.
“I did it because of the positive reaction I got from my peers.”
The goal of the “Krusty Krab is Unfair!” sign was to show that protests with signs don’t work. Micah also didn’t initially think he’d protest more than one day, “I was only planning on doing it one day, but the reaction I got made me want to continue. I wanted to prove that signs are ineffective. It’s just an ineffective way to get a point across.”
He believes signs only help to prove one point, which is the side that the sign is promoting.
Signs do not allow for discussion among one sided viewers. Signs are only effective for the people still questioning their beliefs on the topic. People who support the sign are going to either keep walking by or might possibly stop to give accolade.
People who do not support the sign will most likely ignore the protest. Because of this, the sign will only attract viewers with no real view point on the issue, which does not spark discussion among people with a view point.
Photo courtesy Rayanne Phelps
But the question many people were asking themselves as they passed by the sign was often, “Why Krusty Krab and why Pluto?”
Micah says SpongeBob is important in his life and his inspiration for the sign came from an episode where SpongeBob protests. As for the Pluto sign, “I connect to Pluto. I’m the middle child and I feel forgotten about a lot,” Micah said.
Micah was asked about his opinion on the man with the “You Deserve Rape” sign at the Pensacola Women’s March.
“My question is, ‘why?’ Why would he do that? It proves my point. A sign forces your opinion on someone else,” Micah noted.
Further discussion gave a deeper meaning to Micah’s answer. Micah feels it proves his point by showing that when you hold a sign with a one sided meaning, that you will either get positive or negative feedback, no discussion involved.
Both “sign guys” have their opinions on one another.
Micah emphasized that his reasoning for his sign had nothing to do with Joey as a person. It had to do with his approach to protesting although he’s skeptical of Joey’s intent. Micah believes Joey protests with his signs for attention.
“Why is he even out here if he is going to be so off-putting. He stands there with his sunglasses and straight face, not going out and making discussion. Just standing there,” Micah said.
Joey was asked to comment about Micah’s protest. He replied by saying “I know the difference between satire and bullying…this is bullying, not satire.”
Micah’s last comment was that his protest is not a personal attack and that Joey shouldn’t take his actions as a personal attack.
“He thinks it’s his space. It’s public space.”