TO THE EDITOR:
“Provide me a recent example in which direct action led to a desired policy outcome.”
Many young people today share similar frustrations. In 2011, demonstrators #Occupied New York’s Zuccotti Park to denounce rising income inequality in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Today, income inequality is more pronounced than at any time since 1928.
In 2014, the experiences of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Lennon Lacy and Tamir Rice drew attention to a legacy of injustice and fractured relationships between law enforcement and minority communities. The #BlackLivesMatter movement today continues to face establishment scrutiny, encountering accusations of disorganization and disunity.
In a letter penned from prison in Birmingham, Ala., Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue ... to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”
Civil disobedience is not merely an alternative avenue for civic engagement. It is often the only avenue for civic engagement available to those who remain systematically silenced, neglected or trivialized.
On Friday, the UNC Board of Governors voted to raise tuition and shut down the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity amidst the vocal protests of two dozen student activists. As long as the BOG’s undemocratic structure trivializes student voices, we will continue to engage in direct action. We will continue to educate ourselves, solidify communities and undertake the long-suffering work of civil disobedience.
Danielle Allyn
Freshman
