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What the 'reopen' protesters are really saying

Diana DalyMay 5, 2020, 20:29 IST
What the 'reopen' protesters are really saying

People at the Utah Business Revival rally, which wants Utah's economy re-opened, in Salt Lake City, April 18, 2020.Associated Press

  • People have filled streets and squares across the country to protest lockdown orders meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
  • A review of those demonstrations reveals who is taking part in them and what they're really calling for.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The "anti-lockdown" and #Reopen protests in the US have powerful and secretive backers, but there are real Americans on the streets expressing their opinions.

As an ethnographer — someone who studies cultural participation — I'm interested in who those Americans are, and why they're upset.

I spent the last week in what you might call an online road trip, studying 30 posts of protest footage from events in 15 cities. I found some shared themes, which don't fit well with popular narratives about these protests.

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7. Divided and distanced, is it a movement?

7. Divided and distanced, is it a movement?
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Ocean Beach Park in Miami Beach, April 29, 2020. Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

Most protesters did not refer to these protests as a movement. I found just one video offering a vision that they could form one. In that livestream from Operation Gridlock, at one point the videographer shouted, "'merica!"

Then, his unseen companion replied in a meditative tone about the potential he saw on that road: "Together we're strong, divided we're weak. That's the establishment's biggest fear, for the people to get together and not be divided. … That's what they fear the most. Because we have the power."

It was not clear if those people with the power included the much greater number of people across America who were sheltered in place.

[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation's newsletter.]

Diana Daly, Assistant Professor of Information, University of Arizona

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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6. Race is a factor.

6. Race is a factor.
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5. "Tyranny" depends on who governs, not how.

5. "Tyranny" depends on who governs, not how.
A message encouraging hand washing at the Buckhead Theater days before the phased reopening of businesses and restaurants from the coronavirus restrictions in Atlanta. Reuters

In many of the events across different states, protesters objected to what they called "tyranny," and held up the Revolution-era "Don't Tread On Me" Gadsden flag to symbolize their resistance to government rules. They were not objecting to President Donald Trump's April 13 declaration that, as president, his "authority is total" over the nation.

Instead they were objecting to governors' lockdown rules, which they highlighted as overreaching their power. Many protesters likened the government's behavior to Nazis, with protesters adding "Heil" before Democratic governors' names.

No male governor was targeted as viciously and overtly as female Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A widely circulated poster depicted her dressed as Adolf Hitler, giving a Nazi salute beside a swastika. Other demonstrators talked about Whitmer as though she were mothering them instead of governing them, like one who insisted, "We're not her children!"

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4. People want to fight the virus in familiar ways.

4. People want to fight the virus in familiar ways.
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3. Anti-science displays are on the fringe.

3. Anti-science displays are on the fringe.
Rally-goers outside the Missouri Capitol to protest stay-at-home orders put into place due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in Jefferson City, April 21, 2020. Associated Press

There were protesters at several rallies who wore anti-vaccination T-shirts and held signs suggesting they don't trust public health experts and scientists.

But only one protest was dominated by that theme. At that one, on April 18 in Austin, Texas, hundreds of attendees chanted "Fire Fauci!" referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been a frequent public face of the federal government's efforts to fight the virus. That was also the rally where right-wing radio host Alex Jones, who runs a conspiracy-theory website, drove around in a truck egging on attendees' chants through a megaphone.

At the other events, it appeared protesters had been expecting higher numbers of infections than actually happened. Rather than seeing that as evidence of the success of social distancing, they seemed to interpret this as saying the science was no longer valid.

"The models were wrong" was on more than one sign, suggesting protesters had paid attention to the scientific models at first but had come to believe the disease's seriousness had been exaggerated.

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2. The threat of the virus is serious.

2. The threat of the virus is serious.
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1. Poverty is taboo, but work is "essential."

1. Poverty is taboo, but work is "essential."
Protesters demonstrate at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, demanding that Gov. Tom Wolf reopen the economy, April 20, 2020. Associated Press

Despite the economic toll the lockdowns are taking on America's poor, no protesters put their own poverty on display, such as posting signs asking for help.

Instead, they held signs with more general language, like "Poverty Kills," or expressed concerns like the restaurateur in Phoenix, Arizona, who told a passing videographer he was worried about his 121 "suffering, devastated" employees.

Their messages made clear that they didn't want to ask for a handout or charity — but they were asking to be allowed to work. Protesters across many states asserted their work — or even all work — was "essential."

In one video from an "Operation Gridlock" protest in Lansing, Michigan, where activists planned to block traffic, a protester filmed out the window of his car when he drove past a sign saying "Give me work not money." The protester himself called out in approval, "Give me work not money, I hear that!"

A young man at an Olympia, Washington, event described work as a source not only of money but identity: "I wanna go back to work! That pride that you feel every day when you go home from work? That's like nothing that can … be taken."

Protest signs in Denver, Colorado, included the plaintive "I want my career back" and the entrepreneurial "Dogs Need Groomers."

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