Die-In Demonstration: Style over Substance, Divided by Race

A couple hundred University of Michigan students staged a “die-in” protest Wednesday afternoon, laying down on the diag for approximately an hour, impeding other students trying to get to and from class on the final day of classes.

The protest was in response to the highly publicized police incidents of the last few months, including those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York. As the event page proclaimed, “This protest represents a fight against police oppression, and the systemic oppression of black people in this country.”

However, it seemed as though racial issues were the focus of the protest, with police brutality and subsequent potential solutions being pushed to the back burner.

According to organizer William Royster, a member of the Black Student Union, the goal of the protest was “to allow voices to be heard, and spread awareness of some of the national crises and injustices that are going on in our nation at this time, concerning black lives and black matter,” and afterward adding, “and police brutality, of course.”

The “die-in” was originally planned by three “outraged and impassionate” white students, but was then handed over to the Black Student Union and the University’s NAACP chapter due to the fact that the three students were “members of the oppressing party.”

It was a move that turned away many students, including Junior Kayla Garthus, who was originally “extremely supportive” of the protest. “I know many of my colleagues, my peers, were willing to come to this event initially based on their belief that white people, just like all people of color, could stand together in solidarity under the term ‘humanity’ over an extremely volatile issue,” a sentiment that changed following the racially-charged Facebook posts announcing the event’s change of hands. “My fear was coming and being labeled a ‘racist’ and an ‘oppressor’ simply by my race, my color. So I felt uncomfortable participating in this event.”

Freshman Kevin Wolf, who said he helped out with the event, explained “the goal to have it in the diag was to infringe people’s line of walking, sort of like a symbol of more of like a greater idea that a lot of people just in their daily lives, for example, in these urban communities, they can’t walk peacefully each day, or at least that’s somewhat, I think, how they feel.” He hoped the protest would “cause people to think, and know that there are people who think that society is somewhat broken and needs fixing.”

But anyone in search of potential fixes to the system that so many of the protestors declared was “broken” were to unfortunately come up empty-handed.

“The system needs to be either rewritten, some laws need to be re-passed, but there is no quick-fix,” said Royster. “The body-cameras have been offered, but this was caught on camera, so it’s gonna take an internal change in the policies.”

Fellow protestor James, a freshman holding a sign that read “#justiceforJohnCrawford,” only deferred to other organizations when pressed for potential remedies to police brutality. “I have a limited amount of knowledge of what organizations such as CopWatch have to say. I would probably refer to them for any real solutions.”

Garthus pointed to specific issues contributing to the current state of affairs. “Giving police military-grade weaponry is completely negligible to human rights. Not to mention the war on drugs that has perpetuated through the nation, especially in inner city areas, also does not help police brutality issues, especially with people of color.”

However, many protestors seemed not to have a problem with police militarization at all. When asked if he felt that a move toward a demilitarized police force could ease tensions and reduce brutality, Wolf countered, “No, I think that there is a reasoning for (police militarization), and it makes sense. I think a demilitarized police just sounds like…it’s like going back to the 20’s when police were outweighed by bad people.”

After approximately an hour of laying down, the protestors arose to listen to a number of speakers, many from the Black Student Union.

Numerous students expressed frustration with both the event’s focus and execution in the aftermath. One student posted to the event’s page “I was incredibly disappointed…we should have taken to the streets…I will next time steer clear of student protests that are more about the pictures than the protest…we couldn’t even hear the speakers….we need to do better…”

This student has even planned a counter-protest of sorts. The event, titled “I CAN’T BREATHE,” is scheduled for MLK day, January 19th, and it’s description reads: “The issue of police brutality is not a black issue…it is everyone’s issue…it is the police state that we have allowed to sneak up and drain us of our constitutional rights.”

It’s a message hopefully everyone can get behind.

A version of this article originally appeared in The College Fix.

 

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