Dialectics of Protest and Resistance in Portland
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The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Master's Theses Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects Spring 5-21-2021 “What did you see? We didn’t see shit”: Dialectics of Protest and Resistance in Portland Annika Bratton [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/thes Part of the Social Justice Commons Recommended Citation Bratton, Annika, "“What did you see? We didn’t see shit”: Dialectics of Protest and Resistance in Portland" (2021). Master's Theses. 1357. https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/1357 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of San Francisco “What did you see? We didn’t see shit”: Dialectics of Protest and Resistance in Portland A Thesis Project Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education International and Multicultural Education Department In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Human Rights Education By Annika Bratton May 2021 “What did you see? We didn’t see shit”: Dialectics of Protest and Resistance in Portland In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION by Annika Bratton May 2021 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approval by all the members, this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: Monisha Bajaj May 1, 2021 _________________________ ________ Instructor/Chairperson Date Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 2 Introduction 2 Statement of the Problem 4 Background and Need 4 Positionality 5 Statement of the Purpose 6 Qualitative Research Questions 7 Methodology 7 Limitations 9 Significance 10 Chapter 2 Review of the Literature 11 Theoretical Framework 11 Suppression of Dissent 13 Dissent in the Current Era 17 Concerns of Dissidents 20 Summary 23 Chapter 3 Findings 25 Introduction 25 Participants 25 Research Findings 27 Whose Streets? 27 Tactics and Repression 32 New Movements for Old Issues 39 Obstacles 43 Utopian Imagination 45 Summary 47 Chapter 4 Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations 49 Introduction 49 Discussion 49 Recommendations 53 Conclusion 55 References 56 Bratton 1 Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the willingness of activists and protesters to share their lived experience and participate in these interviews. I would like to recognize not only those who participated in this research project but all of the activists, organizers, and protesters who have taken to the streets in Portland and beyond to rise up against police brutality, white supremacy, the carceral state, and capitalism. This work is done again and again by Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples. I would also like to thank the mentors, teachers, and professors, who have patiently guided my thinking on human rights issues, provided their expertise and knowledge, and supported me through every changed rendition of my human rights project. Dr. Monisha Bajaj is the sort of teacher that everyone needs, and has provided endless insight into this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Susan Katz for advising me through this graduate program, Dr. David Donahue for his guidance and mentorship, Dr. Jules Boykoff for introducing me to theoretical approaches to suppression of dissent in my undergraduate education, and Dr. Paul Snell for his guidance on teaching, and encouraging my pursuit of a graduate program. Thank you to my parents, Diana and David, who have supported all of my educational endeavors and have spoken with me about social justice at the dinner table since I can remember. Finally, I have to thank my former students from Gallup High School, who reinvigorated my idea of education and so graciously supported my decision to return to school myself. They are making changes in the world every day and inspire me so. Bratton 2 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Tyree Woodson. John Crawford III. Ezell Ford. Dante Parker. Tanish N. Anderson. Akai Kareem Gurley. Tamir Rice. Rumain Brisbon. Jerame C. Reid. Natasha McKenna. Janisha Fonville. Tony Terrell Robinson. Meagan Hockaday. Mya Shawatza Hall. Phillip Gregory White. Eric Courtney Harris. Walter Lamar Scott. Freddie Carlos Gray Jr. Brendon K. Glenn. Sandra Bland. Samuel Vincent DuBose. India Kager. Jeremy “Bam Bam” McDole. Jamar O’Neal Clark. Corey Lamar Jones. Quintonio LeGrier. Bettie “Betty Boo” Jones. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Joseph Curtis Mann. Korryn Gaines. Terrence LeDell Sterling. Terence Crutcher. Alfred Olango. Deborah Danner. Quanice Hayes. Chad Robertson. Jordan Edwards. Charleena Chavon Lyles. Aaron Bailey. Bijan Ghaisar. Dennis Plowden Jr. Stephon Alonzo Clark. Saheed Vassell. Antwon Rose Jr. Botham Shem Jean. Anton Milbert LaRue Black. Chinedu Okobi. Charles “Chop” Roundtree Jr. Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. Gregory Lloyd Edwards. Sterling Lapree Higgins. Javier Ambler. Ronald Greene. Elijah McClain. Atatiana Koquice Jefferson. John Elliot Neville. William Howard Green. Manuel “Mannie” Elijah Ellis. Breonna Taylor. Daniel T. Prude. Michael Brent Charles Ramos. Dreasjon “Sean” Reed. George Perry Floyd. Tony McDade. David McAtee. Carlos Carson. Rayshard Brooks. Dijon Durand Kizzee. Jonathan Dwayne Price. Marcellis Stinnette. Sincere Pierce. Angelo “AJ” Crooms. Casey Goodson. Bratton 3 Many of these names are familiar. Some of them may not be. This list is an incomplete memoriam of Black individuals murdered by police since 2014, beginning with the murder of Michael Brown, whose death at the hands of police sparked massive uprisings across the country and changed the movement for racial justice in the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement, which began the year before in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, became more widely known as racial justice movements spread in the United States. Statement of the Problem Dissident action that criticizes, counters, or undermines the state is almost never given a significant mainstream platform to be heard from, and is instead represented solely on the terms of the system it criticizes (The Guardian, 2020; Jennings and Saunders, 2019). We the people hear about dissent almost entirely from the perspective of the state. An honest perspective on oppression and dissent cannot be developed if all information comes from the state. Additionally, the state presents dissidents as angry, riotous, and without rhyme or reason (BBC, 2020; Associated Press, 2020). While there is often anger, and even some disorganization present in movements that are so important to people, there is an intentional system, goal, and even collective education that protesters undergo to carry out these movements (McCrea, et al., 2017). This thesis attempts to “hand the mic” to the people in the streets, who are carrying out mutual aid, direct action, community education and care, to tell their own stories about the racial justice uprisings in Portland, Oregon during the second half of 2020 and ongoing into 2021 at the time of this writing. Bratton 4 In academia, the majority of scholarly sources are created by those who do not or will not identify themselves as a protester, and this scholarship takes an analytical angle that generalizes movements to mass actions and can overlook the individuals making the actions happen (Boykoff, 2007). Whether through media or scholarly work, we rarely hear about a social movement from those carrying it out. And there is much work in carrying one out. Protest carries high risk of physical danger, potential increased COVID-19 risk in the current period, legal implications, risk of losing employment and livelihood, and faces threats from both law enforcement and from groups with opposing ideologies (Friedersdorf, 2020; Ollstein and Goldberg, 2020). Both in media and academia, we need to begin centering protester voices when discussing causes, tactics, and so-called legitimacy of protests. Background and Need In May of 2020, George Floyd was forced to the ground during an arrest, knelt on at the neck for nearly nine minutes, and killed. Floyd’s murder sparked racial justice uprisings across the country, coinciding with quarantine, pandemic, and mass unemployment, and in some places across the United States, starting a fire of social unrest. Large scale and peaceful demonstrations in Portland grew increasingly dangerous for protesters as the police responded to marches, and particularly the stationary protests at the Multnomah County Justice Center, with increased violence. It quickly became a nightly and expected occurrence for protesters to be tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, brutally arrested, or forced into snatch vans and disappeared (Levison, Wilson, and Haas, 2020). Federal officers arrived in the city to work in tandem with the Portland Police Bureau (Levison, 2020). Through it all, news media Bratton 5 outlets blared warnings about dangerous “Antifa terrorists” and cautioned people away from Portland altogether. Reports that have recognized the values and goals of the movement framed it in a