Anatomy of an Immigration Rally
| By AnnikaCarlson - Apr 11th, 2006 at 10:37 am EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Have you ever been one of over 100,000 people dancing your way through your city? If not, I HIGHLY recommend it. I joined the immigration rights march yesterday in Washington DC to get a feel for the anatomy of a movement sweeping the nation. While the Senate struggles to overcome their seeming paralysis by taking a two-week recess, millions of people across the country took to the streets to make their active presence known. If nothing else, the sheer force of being in a crowd that big is overwhelming and impressive--it's not often you see that many people united and taking a stand for what they believe in.
Fellow CP intern Brandon and I joined my friend August, who, fortunately for us, speaks Spanish, to go to the march preceding the rally on the National Mall--we met just north of the city in Malcolm X Park, where a couple hundred marchers started their trek to the base of the Washington Monument. We passed the White House and a good chunk of downtown en route, closing down multiple streets and drawing people out of their offices to watch (and, in many cases, encourage) the mass of marchers. August translated the various chants for us--although there was a lot of diversity in the crowd, most of the organizers and most passionate attendees were Hispanic. "Si se puede" and "Hoy, marchamos; maņana, votamos"--"Yes we can" and "Today, we march; tomorrow, we vote"--reflect the sentiment shared by the hundreds of thousands--we love this country and want to stay to participate. Easily the most common cheer emphasized this further--everyone was loudest when shouting "USA! USA!"
So in a crowd where Arab, Chinese, Puerto Rican, white American, Canadian, Mexican, Honduran, black American, Venezuelan (and this list could go on forever) people represented their varied heritage but all marched under the American flag, there were drums, guitars, bullhorns and whistles to keep us moving and motivated. Everyone smiled and laughed, everyone was courteous and friendly--at one point on the way to the march, a white guy passed a bunch of us in the Metro and started saying in Spanish, "The gringos are with you!" As soon as August translated for me, I joined in the laughing and cheering, knowing I wasn't on the outside there even though I'm white--I was there for the same reason as everybody else.
What was most compelling about the crowd, though, was how young it was. There were a ton of parents out with their kids in tow, groups of high school kids and even representatives from the University of Maryland. I was watching the news coverage last night and someone commented on the huge number of young men in the crowd. The rally set such a contrasting picture to the status quo of political activity--young people, especially young men, were out in droves to make their voices heard and to be counted as part of the movement.
Here are some pictures from on the ground at the rally--it's nearly impossible to capture the energy and magnitude of 100,000 united marchers, so you should probably get out and join the next one to get a better feel for it.
Fellow CP intern Brandon and I joined my friend August, who, fortunately for us, speaks Spanish, to go to the march preceding the rally on the National Mall--we met just north of the city in Malcolm X Park, where a couple hundred marchers started their trek to the base of the Washington Monument. We passed the White House and a good chunk of downtown en route, closing down multiple streets and drawing people out of their offices to watch (and, in many cases, encourage) the mass of marchers. August translated the various chants for us--although there was a lot of diversity in the crowd, most of the organizers and most passionate attendees were Hispanic. "Si se puede" and "Hoy, marchamos; maņana, votamos"--"Yes we can" and "Today, we march; tomorrow, we vote"--reflect the sentiment shared by the hundreds of thousands--we love this country and want to stay to participate. Easily the most common cheer emphasized this further--everyone was loudest when shouting "USA! USA!"
So in a crowd where Arab, Chinese, Puerto Rican, white American, Canadian, Mexican, Honduran, black American, Venezuelan (and this list could go on forever) people represented their varied heritage but all marched under the American flag, there were drums, guitars, bullhorns and whistles to keep us moving and motivated. Everyone smiled and laughed, everyone was courteous and friendly--at one point on the way to the march, a white guy passed a bunch of us in the Metro and started saying in Spanish, "The gringos are with you!" As soon as August translated for me, I joined in the laughing and cheering, knowing I wasn't on the outside there even though I'm white--I was there for the same reason as everybody else.
What was most compelling about the crowd, though, was how young it was. There were a ton of parents out with their kids in tow, groups of high school kids and even representatives from the University of Maryland. I was watching the news coverage last night and someone commented on the huge number of young men in the crowd. The rally set such a contrasting picture to the status quo of political activity--young people, especially young men, were out in droves to make their voices heard and to be counted as part of the movement.
Here are some pictures from on the ground at the rally--it's nearly impossible to capture the energy and magnitude of 100,000 united marchers, so you should probably get out and join the next one to get a better feel for it.
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For the record, our rally had no Mexican flags and all but one sign was in English. The media, for its part, covered the hell out of it but the photo the paper used was of a t-shirt with "Mexico" written on it, and the only sign quoted in the article was the one sign in Spanish. Methinks I detect a slight selection bias on the part of the press covering the event--finding facts to fit the narrative and all.