The anatomy of a protest against hate

RECENTLY, I got an e-mail from an old political activist friend. He knew that I was living in Durango, Colo. (population 15,501), and he asked me if anything political was going on here. Disparagingly, I responded that I had so far been unable to detect anything, and that most Fort Lewis College students I have met seem more interested in smoking pot, partying and rock climbing than in actual discussions about politics--let alone living activism.

Ironically, the very next day, Tuesday, November 9, my girlfriend sent me a text message telling me she was going to a protest and inviting me to come along.

Apparently, a recent documentary called The Anatomy of Hate was being screened at Fort Lewis, and a group of "Christians" from Kansas (whose outspokenly anti-gay Westboro Baptist church and pastor, Fred Phelps, were featured in the film) was coming to protest it. The students were organizing a counterprotest of the protesters. Naturally, I dropped what I was doing and went to check it out.

After hearing that Westboro Church members were planning on coming to protest the movie, student organizers had a debate over whether they should counterprotest the bigots directly, or hold a separate pro-tolerance rally on the other side of campus. As it played out this time, the latter option won.

Though I believe there is much to be said for confronting bigots directly, on the day of, there were no bigots to confront! They church hadn't come. Perhaps they were scared away by our counterprotest, or perhaps they simply had the revelation that the cost of gasoline for a 26-hour round-trip drive wasn't worth it.

Whatever the reason, the absence of actual Westboro bigots had no noticeable dampening effect on the rally. Over 1,000 people came out (organizers optimistically hoped for 300) to the chapel and marched to the football field for a rally, which I can say was the most empowering hour I've ever spent in a chapel or on a football field. This crowd was largely assembled last minute, via word of mouth, text messages and social networking sites.

The outpouring of support wasn't limited to the student body, either. Several non-students such as myself were there, as were several teachers, the president of the college, and even the town's mayor! The local press was there, and the next day, the Durango Herald devoted space to a long, photo-accompanied article.

Not having visited the Fort Lewis campus before, I asked several students in the crowd if they could give me directions to where the movie was being shown. Several of them replied, "What movie?" Apparently, they didn't know about the film that was the principal reason for the protest taking place, though I'd like to consider this more of a positive sign of the protest's mass nature, than a negative sign of the protest organizers' inarticulateness.

WE SAW the film and stayed for the discussion. The actual movie is generally good, and I recommend that anyone see it. Relying largely on the theories of progressive psychologists and sociologists, along with the filmmakers' own interviews with various hate groups, soldiers and civilians currently engaged in different wars, this film explores where hate comes from, how it is related to our own fears, and how it is often exploited by political and religious groups seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the general population.

I did, however, find myself criticizing the film at times for relying too much on psychology, and for not providing enough historical context, on matters such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This the film portrays largely as a dispute among more or less equally fanatical sides. Of course, the two sides involved are hardly equal, either militarily or economically, and it is my opinion that without a frank discussion of the colonial nature of Zionism, or the everyday oppression that the occupation creates for Palestinians, it is impossible to understand this conflict or how it could be resolved.

I also feel the film relies too much on the filmmakers' own hope for psychological breakthroughs on the part of haters themselves, and at times, it actually disparages the utility of actively confronting hate groups. The KKK members, and "suit-and-tie" Nazis appear as relatively calm people, while the most violent or "fanatical" behavior we see comes from anti-Nazis as they yell or physically assault marching Nazis. Having organized and marched against Nazis myself, and having done so while managing to avoid a physical fight, I can't help but feel that the director is rather selectively and unfairly balancing his footage.

That said, these are my own criticisms of a generally quite interesting film. If you've ever found yourself trying to seriously grapple with issues of hatred, fear, religious fanaticism and oppression, I recommend you check out The Anatomy of Hate, which is available online.

Just make sure you see it with a friend--or better yet--with a group of friends, and have a discussion about it afterward. No matter what you or your friends' political background, you are going to learn something from this film, and all of you are going to learn more from talking to each other after you've seen it.

And of course, if you go to a college, I recommend that you organize and promote a campus-wide showing of it, if for no other reason than to further demoralize the Westboro Baptist Church and to have an excuse for a large, empowering, pro-LGBT rally should anyone attempt to protest you for showing it.

Christian Wright, Durango, Colo.