Outraged and emotionally hurt, members of the Quinnipiac community came together Saturday to peacefully protest the racist Snapchat that went viral earlier this week and to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We are all here because we want the university to get the message of just how significant that Snapchat really was. And we are not just trying to point blame at the girl in the picture, the girl who took the picture or the other girl involved. We are not just trying to condemn them, we are just trying to make the university understand,” Quinnipiac sophomore Gobari Idamkue said.
Protesters gathered outside the Arnold Bernhard Library at 8 a.m. Saturday as they expressed their level of frustration and pain from the Snapchat that went viral earlier this week.
“A lot of people say ‘it’s not a big deal, it’s not a big deal, it’s just one picture’. But it’s not an isolated incident. Black students go through marginalization in classrooms,” Quinnipiac senior Ruth Onyirimba said. “In the hallways and in their dorm rooms, as well as other marginalized races and religions and identities on campus. A lot of times there are students who have been crying in the hallways because of how hurtful this picture was to the black community.”
Onyirimba sentiments were shared by many other protesters, but not just the one’s of color.
“My initial reaction was feeling upset because of the pain that was visible from my black brothers and sisters,” Quinnipiac graduate Colby Putnam said.
Putnam, protested through a different lense than most of the others, as he is white. But, that has not stopped Putnam from being a part of the movement and having compassion for black people, a perspective that he gained at Quinnipiac.
“Before I came to Quinnipiac, I didn’t know that racial injustices were happening. I grew up in an all-white neighborhood where the master narrative I was taught in history class was that ‘we had the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King came along and everything was cool’,” Putnam said. “But that’s not the case. And that news needs to be shared and spread across this campus for things to change so that we have a culture that cares and we don’t see stuff like that snapchat we all saw earlier this week.”
Protest organizers held the event on the same day as Quinnipiac’s open house hoping to disrupt the university’s event and make prospective students and their families aware of their presence. Something that Putnam believes is crucial in aiding the problem.
“If we allow Quinnipiac to be a place where real discussion can happen, that should totally draw people in of any background. If we’re suppressing conversation, are we living up to the name of the university? Are we doing what we’re supposed to be doing as an educational institution?,” Putnam said. “I don’t think so. And so the fact that we’re here and we’ve been allowed to be here, that’s a great thing and I think that speaks volumes.”
Throughout the day the protest gained steam and more people joined the initial group, most notably members of the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team. Andrew and Aaron Robinson (black), Peter Kiss (white), and Mikey Dixon (black) all came to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and condemning the Snapchat that went viral.
“I think for us being athletes, the spotlight is always on us, everyone loves watching us, so I feel like us as athletes can come out here and make a statement,” Robinson said. “I think it’s important that we have a platform to speak and people will listen to us because we are athletes.”
Black Lives Matter protests have been occurring throughout the country since Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012. While Black Lives Matter’s website states that one of its guiding principles is that, “We are committed to collectively, lovingly and courageously working vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension all people,” many protests have involved violence.
At the protest there was a significant police and public safety presence to heir on the side of safety for everyone involved. The protest was organized in secret due to the concern of it being shut down prematurely by Quinnipiac. But, not once was their a motion to censor the protest. In fact, protesters received praise from Hamden Police and Quinnipiac Public Safety as members of administration greeted the protesters in the morning.
“Knowing the university respects and supports different viewpoints, this is a platform to spread ideas. That’s what a university is about. We have, I think a better idea of what we want to do moving forward from today’s experience,” Putnam said.
During the rally some officers came together with the protesters to take a picture. A sign that despite some of the violent protests going on around the country, there can be solidarity. Something that Hamden Police Chief, Thomas Wydra, was very pleased with.
“We certainly celebrate people’s rights to demonstrate in this country and assemble. What we are seeing here today is a great exhibition of that,” Wydra said. “So we are here just in case if anyone came and didn’t act peacefully or meant to disrupt the operation here on the university. Clearly that has not been the case, this has been a tremendous demonstration. Very peaceful, very respectful and we embrace that.”
Respect and peace were two core values shared by the protesters and the police. Another value or goal the protesters had was to use the protest as a platform to spread ideas. Something they feel has not been presented to them by Quinnipiac and that they would like to see in the future. They promoted many ideas and innovative ways that people of all races, genders, and ethnicities can better understand the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I think the biggest thing that I would say is before you start to take sides and to defend an opinion, especially if you’re coming from a white background, go and actually have a conversation with your friends that are black and who have grown up with experiences that you might not know even exist. Until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes, you’re not going to understand,” Putnam said.
