Friday, January 28, 2011

Protest

After our class yesterday--where we looked at the protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention--I was thinking a lot about the protests that have erupted in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere the last few weeks. In particular, this raw footage from the AP about Friday's military and police response in Egypt caught my attention.



On the one hand, from the point of view of the United States, one might look at these violent responses to street protest and say, "I am thankful that does not happen here!" On the other hand, one need only study U.S. history to come across plenty of examples of suppression of protest--especially in the streets--whether it was attacks on the labor movement or the African-American civil rights movement of the 1960s. So, there needs to be some perspective here about timing, degree, and context.

I guess I would look for what these various examples have in common--taking to the streets to protest when formal political channels are not open to you OR are not responsive to your grievances. In the U.S., we do have a constitutional system (and the First Amendment) to claim as our mantle to justify such protest, regardless of how police (or the state) responds. And, as we will study this semester, the meaning of "free speech" and how people can exercise it has changed over time. Moreover, the policing practices at the RNC in 2004 suggests that those legal structures may, in the end, protect you, but in the moment, perhaps not, in terms of getting your point across without harassment. Besides, the historian in me also knows that what really happened may take some time to unravel. Still, using pens to contain protesters and making illegal arrests are one thing. Bullets and tanks in the street another.

UPDATE: Really interesting to watch the coverage from Al Jazeera English, streaming here.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Getting started

The new semester is almost here and I am about to begin teaching this free speech and responsibility course again. This is one of my favorite courses, which I teach every spring, and as ever it presents me and my students a great opportunity to think about the legal, political, ethical and social dimensions of "freedom of expression," particularly in the United States. Because I teach this course every year, I am able to revisit issues which, a few years back, might have been a glimmer in the future of free speech controversies. For example, this term I am especially interested in campaign finance and the impact of the Citizens United case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court last term, around this time. It was too late for me to really engage deeply with the issue last spring and I had attempted to introduce the issue several semesters back, but have not revisited it recently. So, I am glad I get to work through my own thinking about the impact of the case with my students.

As ever, in a cash-strapped public university, the class is larger than I would like. While some of my colleagues might balk at the idea that 45 students is a large class, for my own pedagogy and that this is an ethics course as much as a history, law and politics course, always gives me pause. I always struggle with the question of how to provide students the opportunity for developing their ideas about interpersonal communication ethics when the numbers seem to defy the possibilities. So, as I have been doing for several semesters, students will work in small seminars as well as a large cohort, giving them a chance to think about what it means to deliberate, in both small and larger settings, issues of pressing concern where we may disagree, in a way that is productive and ethical. Now, despite that gridlock and inability to communicate across differences seems to be the "new normal" in politics today, I still maintain that these kinds of deliberative spaces are possible, and I owe it to my students to help them think about what it takes to create them.

So, as I begin to chronicle this semester's free speech adventure, I am as ever optimistic and hopeful.

Image courtesy of Mellowbox