Advantage Protests with Advantageds’ Support

In organizing a protest demonstration against racism by whites, strive to include some white participants. When setting up a press conference to protest against sexual discrimination against women, include some males among the photographed participants. However, be clear that the whites and the men, respectively, are showing fervent support, not protest leadership.
     These recommendations for social action success derive from exploratory studies at Durham University, The University of Edinburgh, and University of Osnabrück. One of the reasons the recommendations could work might surprise you: The participation by the advantaged alongside the disadvantaged strengthens the perception that the protest will be peaceful rather than violent. There will be a norm of broad solidarity. This, in turn, decreases resistances to appreciating the point of the protest among the general public, and public support is essential for meaningful social change. There’s reason to think this effect is stronger among women in the general population than among men because of greater personal security concerns in women produced through gender identity and parental socialization.
     Nourishing the norm of solidarity has other effects. The researchers found that participation by members of the advantaged group strengthens political identification with the protest cause among both the disadvantaged and advantaged participants. In addition, the visible support can model for other members of the advantaged group, which holds power, that the grievances of the disadvantaged group make sense.
     Yet these research findings also suggest that if the people with the power assume a leadership role, it risks diluting the protest’s impact. The wider group whose disadvantages are being grieved might feel that their cause has been hijacked or that they are being patronized, and they lose interest in the particular initiative. The general public could question the true motivations of the advantaged leadership and so withhold their support.
     This can happen even though the motivations of the advantaged-group participants stem from disgust. In the retail business realm, some frontline staff who carry biases against minorities assume it’s only the minorities who are disturbed by discriminatory behavior. Since the prejudiced staff member decides consciously or subconsciously that they’d prefer not to do business with minorities anyway, they resist changing their behavior. But researchers at Clemson University and University of North Carolina-Wilmington found that many white shoppers become as outraged as blacks when the white shoppers observe a black customer being treated in a discriminatory way. All the customers are watching.

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Watch Out for Discrimination