Firsly, I very much enjoyed our conversation with Professor Roberts; I hope to take government classes during my Cornell career in order to continue learning about modern democracy and social obligation. We said that social protest is a cyclical process rather than a linear one, where there are periods of unrest and subsequent mobilization followed by periods of demobilization and perhaps general content. During the talk, I began to wonder how effective protest is in the forms it has taken today and in history. We talked about what protest does: it gives a voice to underrepresented groups, it brings unseen issues into the mainstream and thus forces larger political parties to take a side on them, and sometimes impacts public policies. The latter, however, is far from guaranteed. Professor Roberts talked about how movements with large public support might still not provoke institutional response, with the example of the gun control protests that arose after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School.

I began to wonder how much change protest can really create. I think protest is very effective for bringing unnoticed issues to light. But how long after protest does tangible change occur, as in the issues being resolved? How do we quantify change in this context? i.e., how do we know when change is superficial or performative and when it is actually effective? By effective we usually mean establishing policy reform and new leaders, and perhaps also change in social norms and language. But often, even policy and elections can be surface-level.

2020 was a year for protest, and it certainly got me thinking more about what needs to change in the world, and how that change can be effectuated. The movement this year has changed the conversation and brought new leaders to the forefront, and we have made a great stride by electing a new president. But nothing has been solved yet. A new leader in office brings a lot of hope and maybe some reform, but there are still barriers in place that are embedded in our political and social system–other people in power with alternative agendas pushing back against change. We live in the same system. We’ve maintained a certain way of life and a certain status quo for a very long time, so how long does it take to change that status quo completely? How quickly can that be accomplished, and how forceful must the means be? Are there better ways to realign the agenda or change policy than the ways we’re doing that now? I have many more questions that I can’t perfectly articulate, and I think now that I am very eager to take a class in government or political science to learn more.

A year after the overcoming polarization in American democracy Rose Cafe, this Zoom chat about social protest was a very interesting follow-up. It was very pleasant to have a chat with a smaller group of people rather than a presentation with a big audience. After listing to HF Ken Robert’s perspectives, we all had the chance to share our experiences regarding protest participation and protest organization. We discussed the importance of social protest as a tool to give voices to those who are not represented by the mainstream government. I shared my experiences organizing high school protests for the March for Our Lives movement, as well as the frustration over the lack of government response more than three years later. One interesting point brought up by Professor Roberts was that, in an era of social media, we must expand beyond these platforms and emphasize in-person grassroots organization.

This week, I attended the Table Talk event about social protest and American Democracy with House Fellow Ken Roberts.  This was a very interesting event and a great chance to discuss the impact of our current climate of protest.  Roberts stressed just how large the current protest cycle is, being a large movement and countermovement that has attracted more people than other protests almost even back to the 1960’s.  In addition, he discussed the important role that protests play in the fabric of our democracy.  One idea which he brought up was the cyclical nature of protests.  Protests often gain momentum but, over time, their activity decreases until another instigating event occurs.  I was surprised when he reminded us that issues from just a year ago, such as gun control, are now not even talked about in the presidential debates and campaigns.  While this is probably in part due to the unique state of the world right now, it is fascinating to think about.  This event left me wondering about how effective protests really are in enacting actual policy change, yet I realized that, while policy change might not always occur, protests bring major issues into public attention.  Often, this is just as important.  Overall, I enjoyed talking about these important issues in a conversational setting with Roberts and the three other Rose Scholars that attended this event.