This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Henry Ryeder. Find him on Instagram at @henryryeder. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
The People’s Republic of China is undoubtedly a repressive regime.
Politicians seek to repress independent reporting on social media. Certain words and phrases are censored on legacy news media, while others are unilaterally fed from top government officials. Oligarchs profit off manufactured international tensions as state police assault student protesters.
Anyway, enough about the U.S. Let’s talk about China, the real enemy to democracy…
In all transparency, I pitched this article several days ago, when divestment protests on campuses at Columbia University, CUNY, and my alma mater NYU (as well as across the nation) were receiving scores of international press coverage. Talk of “Israel’s War on Hamas” pervaded the headlines of white-collar publications as they described students skipping classes, agitating the status quo, and entertaining antisemitic rhetoric.
Amidst all this, coverage on TikTok and Instagram looked quite different, surely to the chagrin of those in power. The encampment at Morningside Campus at Columbia in particular seemed to embody campus action at its finest, showing an entire community spring up in several days. There were readings, lectures; there was a kitchen and a pharmacy. And though you might not believe it from the movement’s anarchic portrayal on news outlets, the protesters at Columbia’s encampment put their heads down for finals week, studying and working while as they drew up banners.
That all changed last night. According to New York Mayor Eric Adams, who’s relished in his dystopian rebranding as a fascist Boss Twead, claimed that nearly 300 protesters were arrested at Columbia and CUNY. “They are attempting to disrupt our city,” Adams said of the protesters at a press conference. Videos of the NYPD’s crackdown show police throwing protesters down the stairs, hitting them, and dragging them across the concrete.
The arrests at Columbia last night came exactly 56 years after Columbia’s anti-war protest in 1968, in which students also occupied Hamilton Hall, only to face an NYPD crackdown. This time, Hamilton Hall was renamed by protesters to Hind’s Hall, in reference to Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces after surviving an attack that massacred her family.
Usually, in these lefty-ranting articles of mine (thank you Sabrina for putting up with my frustrating tardiness and narrative detours), this is where I’d really start to go off. I’d deep-dive into the history of Columbia, student protests, how activism is and has historically been reported in the press, and eventually (after a long while) tie it back to the engaging subject matter.
But none of that feels right today. There’s an eery quiet hanging over the city today: the deafening silence of a brutal suppression by the carceral state. The Columbia student radio station was reporting on the protests for hours last night. Today, it’s been an uninterrupted loop of jazz and classical.
I know this isn’t forever. I know that the more the system digs its boot-heels on the throats of resistance, the stronger that resistance grows. It’s perhaps the only historical consistency across human civilization.
The original title of this piece was “Activision: How to stay safe while protesting.” I don’t think I have a listicle in me. My energy level for such a piece is only further stymied by the insurmountable fury that my Notes app recognized “listicle” as a word but not “carceral.”
What I can tell you to do is: wear a mask if you’re worried about doxing. This threat is real. Put your phone on Airplane Mode. Bring water, not just for you but for others if possible. And, if the police happen to confront you and you happen to be white, move to the front of the line.
I’m going to the protest at Foley Square in Manhattan later today. There’s a small part of me worried about police violence, but it’s such a privilege to think about these things in the abstract. I can’t help but think on my politics in previous years; I was more moderate, more measured in my opposition to those in power, more skeptical of my fellow students’ rage. None of this fabricated calm protected me, none of it made the world a safer place. And it never will.
Forever etched into my brain is the song that Columbia students sang outside Hind’s Hall last night. Their arms locked, they chanted “We shall not be moved” before the NYPD threw them to the ground. One funny thing about the brain is that it processes music as both emotional and semantic information. This may be why dementia and Alzheimer’s patients often exhibit enhanced memory abilities after listening to a familiar song; an emotional core remains where one based in language and meaning may fail.
Our leaders and media have used so many words to describe the genocide in Palestine as anything but: lives ended, military operation, war on terror. They’ve used words to describe the protests against genocide: antisemitic, disruptive, anarchist.
When I’m old and slow, I doubt I’ll remember what Joe Biden said about “Hamas” on his 10th ice cream of the day. I doubt I’ll remember John Fetterman’s slow descent into rightwing lunacy, or Mike Johnson’s pathetically (if hilariously) muted address on the steps at Columbia. But if you were to hum to me the tune of the protesters at Hind’s Hall, I’m sure I’d remember writing this article.
If you’re joining a protest soon, check out these tips. What do you think are the best ways to stay safe? Leave a comment below!
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