On the 30th January, Newcastle Unites – a local charity fighting against discrimination – organised a protest against Trump’s executive order that has commonly been dubbed the ‘Muslim Ban’. This order prevents the entry of citizens from seven Muslim countries into the US for ninety days as well as any refugees for the next four months. In reaction to this news, almost 2000 people gathered at Grey’s monument with posters and placards to hand: a show of solidarity, acceptance and love towards the people affected by this ban, and a united opposition against Trump.
After an afternoon filled with sharpies and cardboard, I paid my £5.10 return to Newcastle and joined the hordes of other Durham Uni students on their way to the protest. The atmosphere was really different to anything I had experienced before. I got the clear sense that we were all going to be involved in something really important and it felt empowering.
Initially, hearing the heated discussions on the train made me question whether I should really be there. ‘I don’t know half as much about Trump and his policies as all these other people’ I thought to myself, ‘am I able to qualify my opinions sufficiently enough to be here?’. I reassured myself that I knew what Trump was doing was inherently wrong and I wanted to make a stand against him. Even if I am not able to reel off the exact points of his executive order and all its political implications to anywhere near the same degree as the people I was overhearing, my contribution was equally as valuable. I think this is a really important message that a lot of people should remember. Often, it is easy to feel self conscious about your level of political knowledge in comparison to others. Sometimes this can be so intimidating that it limits your action. But nobody needs to feel this way, everybody’s voices should be heard equally. To anyone feeling nervous about attending something like this, please feel reassured that I felt exactly the same. This was my first political protest and certainly won’t be my last.
When I reached monument, I was pleased and strangely proud to see so many people had turned out. There was a sea of people and placards, a few of my favourite being ‘no human is illegal’, ‘silence equals compliance’ and, as a history student myself, ‘History has its eyes on you’ resonated with me strongly. Of course there were some more entertaining ones too like ‘super-callous-fragile-racist-sexist-Nazi-POTUS’.
Newcastle Unites had organised some speakers to jeer up the crowd, and despite some technical difficulties with the sound system, all of their speeches were motivating, offering unique perspectives and experiences. Encouragingly, it was not just white men speaking, but people of all ages, genders, races and religions – the lack of intersectionality in the Women’s Marches had been of concern to me and many others.
In talking to a few people about why they attended the march, a common theme was recurring. Everybody seemed to feel like it was just ‘the right thing to do’. For many people this was the first real opportunity they had had to participate in an event of this kind, and after months of feeling helpless and wondering what to do, they could finally take part.
After returning from the protest, one person asked me ‘What’s the point? It won’t have made any difference’. Initially I felt offended but I could understand where they were coming from. One relatively small protest in Newcastle, thousands of miles away from the White House: will Trump really listen or care? It is not single, isolated acts of opposition that will make a difference, but the culmination of many of these events working together. This protest (and ones similar to it which have already taken place, or are scheduled for the future) is only a starting point. They aren’t the sole resolution to all of the problems that we are faced with by having Trump as President but they bring to light the opposition that he faces and they bring awareness to issues that need to be discussed. I am sure Trump definitely didn’t take any notice to my single placard, but hopefully he will have taken notice to the vast amount of protests that have occurred worldwide since his inauguration.
If you are feeling sad, scared or worried about the current situation, it is important to remember that love trumps hate. Always.