2015 was a year in which many believed that protests on college campuses reached levels that hadn’t been mimicked since the 1970s. A new moral culture emerged in 2015: a culture that is vocal about moral justice — a culture that is commonly scorned.
When looking back at many of the major protests and activist stances from the past year, my first instinct is to think, “Yes! This is great.” And it is great. Communities of Americans who face hate, violence and still very real prejudices are banding together and fighting for justice. Women are taking an active role in changing how society perceives their gender. Transgender communities are protesting against discrimination and violence as well. Gun laws, women’s reproductive rights, environmental concerns and many, many more serious matters are in the news daily and people are talking about them. 2015 was the year of activism and protests against American injustices from every corner.
2015 also really showed that a bad protest has the power to deteriorate a worthy cause. Noble and well-intentioned protests have been trivialized with empty words and hypocritical intentions. For example, a “Free the Nipple” march does not really drive its point home when the protesters are wearing shirts. At Williams College, an “Uncomfortable Learning” series speaker event was canceled because students were too uncomfortable with the ideologies of the speaker. At Oberlin, the saga of the cafeteria food cultural appropriation protests has become the fuel for derision against the entire millennial generation.
In the blink of an eye, protests have spiraled in an unintended direction that really undermines the seriousness of certain issues. The manner in which people are going about fighting for a particular cause, or what specific issue they are choosing as their focus, is causing the issue not to be taken seriously.
Living in a world where people are being killed by extremists for their culture, religion or race is terrifying, and it is magnifying a multitude of social concerns. Many sources are calling 2015 the year that college students lost their minds, and while this is a gross exaggeration, I do believe we have allowed certain tensions to escalate and diverge from the heart of the issues.
This attitude that I (and America) have noticed on campuses is a result of myriad influences. To begin, as a student nearing the end of my college years, I, among my fellow classmates, am in a precarious position. Not only are we faced with the absurdly high cost of education, we are also faced with high costs of living and a significant potential not to be able to find a job that will support us post-graduation. On top of this, there are mass shootings, terrorist threats and presidential candidates who are absurdly out of touch with these challenges that we face on a daily basis. These seemingly strange protests, while they sometimes might be stemming from some convoluted sense of entitlement, are for the most part an attempt to take charge of our destinies in a world where life as a successful 20-something seems like a pipe dream.
Not only do our unsure futures influence our activism, but we also mirror our activism after how we were raised. As a dramatic generalization, we mimic our culture’s parenting methods in our interactions. We are looking out for other people, we want everyone to feel like they belong and we want everyone to have an equal chance. Not only did our upbringing cause us to crave justice and equality, but the fear of cultural anonymity after watching so many groups become the target of ignorance and hate makes it all too easy to become paranoid about the perception of our own culture.
2015 caused me to absolutely fear the “boy who cried wolf” scenario. We need to understand the gravity of our activism a little bit more in 2016. Social justice will only take grievous steps backward if serious issues are the butt of every joke.
