Carolyn Knox On Protests

As a person with very close personal involvement in politics and political protest, Carolyn Knox has powerful words of wisdom to share on this subject. Regarding anti-war protests, she said, "People make such a risk when they feel they have no choice. This feeling can come after tangible/personal trauma or as a result of perceived/shared trauma within a group. Obviously, we do not have a draft--that keeps the American middle class from feeling the cost of this war in a personal way. In our time, we have not quite hit the line where--as a group--we identify with Middle-eastern people who are victims of our governments' imperialism. The Vietnamese were easy for us to feel close to: They were fierce but peaceful, agrarian, peasant people who believed in democracy and had great respect for women. Middle eastern people are relatively wealthy, male chauvinist, homophobes, who are easy to make fun or/and demonize. That fractures grass roots organization on their behalf and confuses us in general. I believe that issues around American torture and off-shore prisons are the clearest issues that Americans can feel strong opposition to right now. As/If Homeland Security invades personal space more in this country and evidence of torture off-shore grows--we may see more people in the street."
There have been far fewer anti-war protests occurring for Iraq than for Vietnam (at least physical protest, ignoring written works, etc). Knox offers a couple reasons why, according to her perspective. First, a draft no longer exists. Men and women who go to war go by choice. During the Vietnam war generation, there was huge concern that those who declared war (or didn’t officially, in this case) were acting on a highly controversial cause and would bring in people to fight who did not support the war in any way. There were much higher potential personal costs during Vietnam, proving stronger incentive to protest actively.
Second, an interesting thought, is that American people identify easier with the Vietnamese than the Iraqi people. Stereotypically, the Vietnamese are more peaceful and democratic (ideals America associates with) then the Iraqi people who we tend to demonize. The Iraqi people represent our opposites who we are less likely to protest in support of. American people may be adamantly in opposition to the war, but not necessarily in support of Iraqi politics, which I can see how that may inhibit some grassroots movements that support change, but not through war.

Carolyn Knox, University of Oregon, interview