Ashley Acord
Dr. Kubal
Social Movements M/W 3:30-4:45pm
Protest Tactic #2 S.A.F.F.E
Social Movements are an important part of our ever changing society. It takes a large effort of a large mass over a long period of time to really make a difference. Through the adversity and scrutiny comes a new path of righteousness. Our environmental activist group is called S.A.F.F.E. It stands for students against fossil fuel extraction. Our group worked together to inform students and faculty members on campus about the issue of mass extraction of fossil fuels by large oil companies routinely around our planet.
When you are a part of a social movement, you are encouraged to implement different tactics to help support your issue. For our course called Social Movements led by Dr. Kubal, we were told to choose 5 specific tactics out of a list to raise awareness for our cause. One of the tactics we chose was protesting. We made signs that said different phrases connected to our cause. One had the acronym of our group and its' definition; another had a picture of a planet and the statement "Stop fossil fuel extraction" written in bold letters. It is important when doing a protest to choose a time and place that will have a high volume of viewers so that your cause will get attention and be noticed.
Our group chose to do the protest during the Vintage Days event on campus. It was on a Sunday and all the parking lots of Fresno State were packed. None of us had ever attended Vintage Days and although we were told by some of our fellow students this would be a busy day on campus, we were surprised to see such an amazing turn out for 2014. It was the perfect environment to do our protest.
There were attendants of all ages, race, ethnicity, and gender. We began by standing on the corner of Shaw Ave by the new Fresno State sign across from the 7/11. Shaw Ave. is a very busy street in Fresno and has high traffic. We got a lot of people giving us thumbs up, waving, and honking. We took this as a positive sign. There also were some rude people who made statements while stopped at the stop light; such as, "hippies!" We just smiled and went on with our protest. It is important to smile in the face of adversity to make a change. Negativity will only encourage those dispersing it to believe that there is a disconnect between you and them.
We then strolled around campus throughout the event and talked to some people about our cause and some statistics we thought they would be interested in having knowledge of. We tried to stay within people's comfort space with our signs since it was very congested in some areas, to not make them feel smothered or uncomfortable. Over-all, many people told us they were proud of us for having courage to take initiative in protesting a cause such as fossil fuel extraction during such a large event that was held in a city that is known to be quite liberal. Although I was initially a little scared people would be really mean and rude to us, hearing the positive responses made me proud to be a part of a group dedicated to making a change in our community and world that will benefit our planet.
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