march forth descriptions

Name: Edward Begonia (ebegonia325)

Assignment: protest

Date Submitted: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 11:33:39 PM PDT

            </span>Due to other classes as well as work, I was only able to make it to the march itself, rather than the entire event, which included an open mic, music with the Raging Grannies, dancing with the Rise-Up Dancers, a raffle, and information on causes that are in need of awareness today. There were a lot of tables there that had information for the causes, which include; Animal Rights, Education, Environment, Pretrial Expansion, Sweatshops, Hunger, Peace, Women's Issues, Sexual Violence, and more. I arrived about fifteen minutes prior to the beginning of the march, and I took a look around and talked to some of the booths there about these causes. It was really great to see so many people come together for different causes. Of course, if it were only one cause, there is a possibility that everyone won't show up because they can't all come together to support just one cause. We were all gathered in the free speech area on Fresno State campus.</p>

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Once the march began, we formed a large line that spread about 75 yards long. Everyone had at least one sign, and from what I saw, a couple had two signs. Everyone was representing different causes. I was representing and marching for animal rights. The sign I was holding said, "What do we want? Animal Rights. When do we want them? MEOW!" We walked all around campus, from Shaw to Barstow. I was pretty shocked that the people participating in the march were actually into it. A lot of the time, when something like this is going on, it looks like people are there because they have to be, but in this march, people were actually shouting out for their cause and were really into it. The only downside that I found in the march was that there weren't very many people walking around campus at the time we marched. We just choose a bad time, when students and faculty were busy in class or not there at that time.</p>

What I noticed about the effect we had on the people that were able to see us, was attentiveness. Everyone was looking at us trying to see what was going on. As we marched through campus, I saw some strange looks, maybe confusion. I could tell that everyone was trying to read the signs. Maybe they looked confused because all of the signs said something different. Maybe they weren't confused, just interested. As someone who is on campus everyday, you don't see a large group like ours marching with signs very often. Once we got to Shaw, all of the people driving were looking at us. We even got a few honks. It's hard to tell what people were thinking, but no one was rude, or nobody shouted anything negative at us. Honestly, we didn't get a lot of people coming up to us asking questions. I think that this is because people are scared to come up to that. I know that I would be. If I saw a large group marching with signs, I wouldn't approach them, in fact, I may even try to avoid them and walk the other way. However I didn't see that either, people avoiding us.</p>

Because this is not something you see everyday, I believe that we broke a social norm. It was exhilarating, being apart of such important causes. Even though some people give us some strange looks, it's worth the cause. One could only wish that someday, people wont look at such a powerful way of supporting causes to be seen as deviant, or conflicting with the social norms

Name: Jordan Franco (dieseljordn)

Assignment: protest

Date Submitted: Sunday, March 9, 2014 8:11:02 PM PDT

The March Forth event was a fascinating experience to be a part of. I carried a sign that promoted ending hunger and displayed a fact about how many people go hungry. Before deciding to participate, I was hesitant about being a part of the actual march, but when I realized how many classmates and other students were going to be involved, it was easy to join in. The attitude of excitement and an air of rebellion were contagious. Similarly, I was hesitant to actually carry a sign, but during the moment, I was happy to take one. Being involved in this march was definitely a breach of norms. Simply being one of the people marching around in protest, anyone witnessing could immediately identify you as a sort of rebel or deviant. I think it was that element of visibility that made us feel uncomfortable at first, but once we realized the cohesion of our group, we became more comfortable, beginning to wave the signs high and shout back at onlookers. Before the event, I expected that most people would just stare curiously, but I was surprised by how many people (particularly along Shaw Ave) shouted at us. Some just made hoots and honks, but others even yelled "go to class!" It didn't really bother us that anyone was shouting, and it seemed to egg us on. It was also nice to have familiar faces and friends among the crowd of marchers, because the sense of unity between us made us feel more comfortable in this otherwise awkward activity. When we wrapped up the march, the energy levels were at a high. Dr. Kubal in particular seemed very pumped up and glad of the turnout. After the event, I found myself talking about the march and sharing the fact that I participated. We had a fun time, and I thought that was really interesting given that we were so hesitant to begin with.</span></p>

Jann Blase   The March Forth event was a good, and fun experience for my first semester a  t Fresno State. There were many booths with different issues such as women's abuse, hunger, animal abuse, and a table which promoted healthy lifestyles. Each of the booths had many facts and resources for each of the issue. The issue that I got involved with was animal rights. It saddens me that many animals are neglected and abused by their owners. One statistic that stood out to me was that 32% of animals are abused. Animals depend on humans to take care of them and it is unfortunate that they are treated the way they are. The booth that was presenting information about animal abuse had lots of information about different statistics and places to take animals where they do not kill them if they are not adopted in time.

I have never participated in a protest before so it was definitely a new experience. It felt great participating in such a great cause. I will admit I did have anxiety about doing the protest because I was not sure on what to expect. When I have witnessed protests either in person or on television, many people are upset and crowds are filled with angst. However, the march was not like that whatsoever. There was a big crowd of people with sign marching and those who were not part of the protest noticed. It was also a wonderful feeling walking down Shaw and the people who were in their cars who supported some of the causes honked their horn for support. Even though it may not have been anything too big, there is that tremendous feeling everyone who participated made a difference to at least someone. The march was out of the norm since many people would not want to participate. Some people gave the crowd looks as if we were crazy, but it was all for a good cause. I am extremely proud of myself for taking part in something I would have not thought of doing before.

Name: Sabrina Dominguez (scdominguez06)

Assignment: protest

Date Submitted: Monday, March 17, 2014 3:14:07 PM PDT

During the protest it was interesting to see people look at a different views rather than the protest just focusing on one thing. Although it seemed to confuse people a little because of the way the protest was set up i feel as if that more people were involved because of how many different caused the protest was representing. If there were more people out during the protest i think students would have enjoyed seeing everyone for standing up for different causes and it would become more relatable to the students instead of a specific population of the students. I think the people involved had a lot more fun and interest because of this to although a single issue protest may get a point across better since all of the signs may have not been able to be read. If there was a united front it may have made a little more sense to, but all in all it was a great expierence to be able to be apart of something like that and i wouldnt count out doing another one just because of how much i enjoyed this one and how relatable it was to the entire student body and people in general.

Name: Stevens Herrera When I went to school on the day of the protest I noticed that people were setting up booths about differnt thing we could protest. I got there at 12 and the protest started around 2 pm. A couple of minuets before the protest we were told to pick a topic that we wanted to protest about and make a sign for it. The topic I decided to do the protest about is to stop animal crulity. Once I picked that I created my sign using two pieces of construction paper and a wooden stake. Once it was completed I decided to place the stake into my backpack. This helped me to not carry the heay wooden stake with the sign on it. At 2 the protest started and we walked all around campus. There were some people who decided to voic out their opinions about their topic. The walk around campus was long but in the end I had a lot of fun and gave me experiance on what its like to protest.  </p>

Name: Erik Bruza (embruza)

Assignment: protest

Date Submitted: Thursday, March 6, 2014 9:35:30 PM PST

<p>Going to the protest was very interesting, something that I definitely would not have done under normal circumstances.  So it was absolutely something that I would consider deviant for myself.  One of the biggest things that impacted me were the raging granny's because they got up on that stage without any sign of embarrassment, they really believed in what they were singing about.  Even when people were passing by giggling or ignoring them, they did not care as long as people were noticing them, and listening to what they were singing about.  I especially loved the dance though, they were out there really enjoying themselves for a great cause.  Once the picketing started I was out of my comfort zone, but it was really cool to see the turnout, I did not think that that many people would show up.  By the end I was proud of myself for being a part of the protest, it was a very interesting experience that opened my eyes to some new things and who knows maybe I will try to do it more often for causes that I really believe in. 

The protest was a new experience for me. This definitely broke the norm as I never did any   kind of protesting before. I was glad that I was able to get this opportunity to protest on important issues. It felt good to get involved with the community and make some noise. The overall atmosphere at the site, where we made signs and where tables were set up with different causes was very easy going. There were few people there that I already knew from class. This made it easy to just jump right in and make conversation with others. I usually don't have a problem of just mingling in a group of people. Everyone was very friendly and inviting. What seemed to help was that it was an outside gathering and there were refreshments. Food usually brings people together of all walks of life.   

Another norm breaker was fighting for animal rights. I have never been passionate or close to any kind of animal or pet. Now that I have my own Chihuahua and have come very close to him, I see how important he is to me and my family. I truly believe that animals should have rights.  The other interesting topic was the fight to protest for the victims of violence/rape for young girls. These two topics I feel strongly about and want to make a difference. 

 The action I took to breaking the norm for this get together was to get involved in this walk and protest for important causes. I felt that the experience was not just the extra points to earn, but it truly made a mark in my heart. I feel passionate for animal's rights and for the victims of violence/rape. So, there I was getting involved in something I had never taken part of before. There were others that knew ahead to what I was going to do and they did not understand why I wanted to do something like this. Clearly, they do not know what a protest is and what it means to me to join. People are so busy or so into the norm of things that they are missing out. If we would be able to get more people to hear our causes, then this would be a great start to make changes in our community. 

The expected public reaction I thought for the actual march was going to be just quiet and that no one would look and listen to us. I was wrong. There were people who were there asking questions and seemed interested. During our march, we heard cars passing by and honking for our protesting in agreement. I thought this was awesome. The public accepted us and our causes. There were others who felt the same way as we did. When we united as a group in whole, we caused others to look and listen to what we had to say. It felt great to be heard and belong to something important.  

My thoughts about what the experiment taught me is about how norms shape behavior is the norm can keep one's behavior the same, or unchanged. I see that how I changed the norm for me made me see what I am capable of doing.  This is getting out of my comfort zone and stand up for what I believe in. I was able to discuss these important issues with others and get their feedback. We all had common interest of getting people to hear us and do a protest and march for cause. I know that we are all very busy people and it was great that we made the time and effort to show up and be active in this protest. 

I participated in the protest on campus. I helped make signs for the first hour, or hour and a half. While I was making signs I was learning quite a bit from all the different protests that we had there that day. I myself supported our protests for animals and women's rights primarily. But, I know that there were also protests supporting many other important causes as well. While I was making signs, one of the professors that were helping with the event was telling me a lot about each of the different causes. I don't remember her name however, or but she gave me some interesting facts about each cause. I don't remember a lot of the specific statistics, but most of them are what I used to make the signs. I was also there while the Raging Grannies sang. I thought they were a really effective voice. So many women who really know, and understood what it has been like for women in their past, and now the present. It was quite a breach of my own norms. I haven't really ever been one to act out against society. And, I don't mean that I only walk along a narrow path that society says I can. I mean that I've just never been very involved in any protests. But, I will say that I did definitely enjoy stepping outside of my own comfort zone. I really felt apart of the whole process, especially because I made those signs. I got so much information from all the different causes we had there that day. I can specifically remember one sign I made for someone that said that it costs about $48,000 to incarcerate an inmate. That's just one person! It's outrageous. One more fact that I can remember that I put on a poster was that one in five women report being raped or molested. This was another outrageous fact I can't help but remember! For some reason, these pieces are like linked to that event in my mind. My favorite part was definitely walking during the march. It felt good to be in a big group doing the same thing, in the same kind of situation; fellow students, and walking around our own campus, seeing other students reacting to us. I think it made it a little bit more difficult to be as outside of the norms because we were all supporting different causes. We did definitely create a presence on the campus, and it did create the real feel of a protest march. But, I definitely think if we were supporting the same cause we would have felt more consistent as a group. And, it could have amplified the our effect on the campus, and the effect on ourselves.

Justin Martinez

Sociology 121

Extra Credit Paper

I participated in the march on March Fourth in the free speech area at Fresno State. I decided to protest sweatshops with a couple of people that I had met on the booths. After skimming through all the booths, enjoying some snacks, watching some delightful music by elderly ladies, it was time to march. During the march we received a lot of attention from all of the students within the university. At one point the march touched on Shaw Avenue. At that point many people joined out cause and honked. Others, from what I saw, gave us confused looks. Others just decided to ignore us. While for the most part it was great, I thought that the theme of the march could have been more centralized towards one specific problem. A lot more people would of understood what the protest was about. But all in all, the march was fun and it was the first protest that I have ever participated in. It felt good to exercise a right that we take for granted yet many people in the world die for.

Julieta Ramirez

Soc. 143

THE MARCH

I am in the deviance class and I had never been part of a protest or a march, and I thought that this was going to be a great opportunity for me to do something I always wanted to. When I got to the student patio I saw that the students had begun to set up their tables and were working on their posters. At first I felt out of place because I didn't know anyone, I had seen most of them but I hadn't engaged in any conversation with any of them before. I was doubting weather I should stay or just leave and go home because I was not feeling well, but I decided that I wanted to do the march. I introduced myself to Josh he was trying to organize the table for the environmental group. Since no one from his team had shown up I decided to help him with making some posters and organizing the table. Being a part of that event helped me meet so many fellow sociologists, we had interesting conversations and some of them educated me on what their main societal concerns were, it was an overall awesome experience. The elderly ladies that were singing were very entertaining; I think one of their songs was talking about a female reproductive part and how much taboo existed when referring to it.   My favorite part was the march. Although it was pretty hot and I wasn't feeling 100% it felt so good to be a part of something that turned heads. When the group began to walk on Shaw Ave. and we began to get attention from the people that were driving and heard all those honks in favor, it just felt like I was doing something positive. I like to get involved and I'm looking forward to being a part of more functions like this one. 

March on Tuesday March 4, 2014

I participated in the sociological fair in the free speech area on March 4. I felt it was very informational; I went to each table to learn about each of their topics. I learned about the women's organization and their goals they set out and their accomplishments. I also learned about the sweat shop table and their efforts to bring awareness of the tragedies in sweat shops. There were many more tables who were advocating for important issues such as animal abuse, tuition costs, and so much more.   

 I was also able to see the two entertainments that were there; The Raging Grandmas and the flash mob for women's power and awareness. I thought the Ranging Grannies were great and talked about great issues such as the congresswoman who used the word "Uterus" in one of her speeches and was frowned upon because it was a female body part. I loved the song they sung for that issue and thought it was pretty funny. I also enjoyed the flash mob and thought it was well put together and very meaningful.

I participated in the march on March 4th; I thought it was pretty interesting. I thought that it was going to be more intense but it turned out to be more of a peaceful march. There wasn't many people around when we marched as a group but when there happened to be people, they usually gave confused looks or laughed. When we walked on Shaw amongst the cars, we got the same reaction from the people there; mostly confused looks or laughing. A few people honked or yelled in support but other than that, there wasn't much interaction. Overall I thought it was an interesting experience and I would like to do it again.

Patrick Sanchez

Sociology 143

3/4/14

Extra Credit: Protest

On Tuesday March 4, 2014 I took part in the events that were being brought for by Professor Kubal and some students from the Sociology Department. I was lucky to enough to get out of class early so I was able to make it there for the table booths, the entertainment and to participate in the march. During my time at the event I got to check out all the tables and learn some interesting things the students have come up with to protest against. One table was about the hungry and the guy I spoke with talked about food insecurity which I thought was interesting because it was something we had just learned about and spoke about in class. They had some ideas that could help with the situation and he gave me a flyer of a place where they will be giving out food to the community.

Some of the other booths were about sweatshops and how they were against them, about women's rights/protections in which they talked about women suffering from abuse and the agencies that are there to help them. Another one was about student tuition and how it is extremely high, I thought all of these booths had good propositions. Then there was the performance from the elderly ladies, which was a song they sand and then later there was a dance routine they did. It was really nice. Then there was the march which took about 40 minutes I would say, and was actually better than I expected. The sign I held said "Hungry for Justice", I felt like the march was a really good experience. Nobody bothered us nor did we bother anybody so I felt like it was pretty successful. There was a lot of people attending so I feel we did well with the large number of people.

Jessica Mason

3/10/2014

Soc 143

Dr. T Kubal

Extra Credit

On March 4th I had the privilege to participate in the March Forth Protest. This event was to bring awareness to the various organizations as they fight for change. I particularly enjoyed the dancing and speeches as they strived to make the public aware of the issues in the community and on campus. The organization that I chose to team up with was START (Students Against Rising Tuition). I chose to support START throughout the rally and protest was in part that rising tuition fees continually affect us as students. I also participated I the march around campus as I held that said "No Justice, No Peace". I really enjoyed the event as it caused me to reflect on the many protests and marches that went forth years ago in order for me to have my freedom as a woman and an African-America. While marching we didn't receive much of a reaction other than a few honks from drivers passing by, as a new student to this campus it was an overall great event as I was able to network with my peers. It was good to see the students inter-acting with each other.

Ricardo Torres

Professor Kubal

Social Movements

03/19/14

Protest 

The protest that took place on March fourth generated awareness for many issues. Various groups gathered and took part to raise awareness for issues they felt strongly about. As a student in social movements I was also privileged to be a part of this protest and experience. At first there is disarray no one knew what to expect; however, shortly after arriving I was put to work gathering materials and relaying messages. I started to see the immense amount of effort and organization needed to make something like this work; it was fulfilling being a part of this process. Once my group arrived we started generating conversations with passersby many of whom were not aware of how serious problem sweatshops were. Informing them and letting the world around me know my issue mattered made me feel a sense of accomplishment. I understand now that with effort and careful planning I could organize something similar for any number of social issues that I feel need to be addressed. This was a very good experience for me and I'm glad I was a part of it.