Monday, March 6, 2017
Social Protest Theory
Dear Ella Baker,
How should one go about creating a movement? That seems to be the fundamental question you and your contemporaries tried to address. Was the SNCC right in excluding whites from the movement, you clearly thought no, or not? Should the emergence of black power take over these student movements? In your mind, no. But despite these "nos," you espoused the view that, though these decisions did not accord with your political instincts, these efforts can find their own ways of being valuable and effecting change.
For the movements that are occurring today, I feel the same rules apply. Although there are certainly better modes of changing an oppressive, overarching system, why stifle voices that are speaking and reacting to it from the viscera when our first move should be to understand from where they're coming from? These are all questions movements like #BlackLivesMatter must come to face.
Sincerely,
Professor Olzak
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I think Ella Baker would say that the way one should go about creating a movement is by making a grassroots effort. She would say that using those that are often forgotten but most effected by the actions and reactions to segregation and discrimination through Jim Crow laws because their ideas and experiences are also valid and important to the productivity of a movement. These people include the poor and women and students, not just middle class, educated black men. As for the Black Lives Matter Movement of today, I believe that Ella Baker would advise leaders to work together, even if interests diverge, and focus on inclusion rather than exclusion of any and all of those willing to help.
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