Good Signs

Posted on by ajd08

With what happened this week during UD Day I wanted to talk about the protesters and the protests to the protesters. I know we talked in class about this topic but I wanted to voice my opinion here. Someone in class mentioned the signs that people made. Many of the signs were in support of the minorities and groups that the protestors were shaming. A lot of them said that UD accepts everyone. Some of the signs were jokes however. The one that mentioned Finding Dory and Finding Nemo stuck out to me. I know in class that sign was said to have connected everyone being great even if they are different but I thought it was not. I saw it as a guy who wanted to stick out in the crowd by making a sign for something completely irrelevant. Although it did bring a little bit of comedic relief I also found it annoying. I feel like if you are going to make a funny sign at least refer it back to why everyone is gathered. There are plenty of jokes that he could have made to stick out instead of talking about movies that has nothing to do with the protesters. I know that he was probably just trying to be funny with his friends and I know that it was just a small tiff on campus but for some reason it did not sit right with me that some people were taking that situation as a joke. These groups are constantly discriminated against and the fact that so many people rallied together to protect them and support them made my heart swell. When I saw the joke signs however I kind of get a little bit disappointed.

11 thoughts on “Good Signs”

  1. Although I do not have much experience with protests, I can’t help but agree that I was initially offended that someone, who is also a student at UD, would make a mockery out of the counter protest that was so clearly taken seriously by nearly all of the students in the area. I believe that if we are not all sticking up for one another we are divided and that is how many of the people around me also viewed the individual with the Nemo sign. I believe that if you are truly trying to benefit the community you will do so with clear communication and education. If this individual were to have accompanied this sign with a hashtag that was somewhat related to the counter protest of even just spoke about the fact that he is there to defend UD it would not have been so bad, but it came across that he was just looking for a few jokes and took this protest as a platform to do so. I would have wished they could have taken this publicity and made some positive change with it.

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  2. I didn’t think of it as trying to make light of the situation. I saw all of these signs as a distraction from the hate and that was truly the main goal, to stop these people from getting the attention that they wanted. It’s also a very tense situation and I don’t see a problem with making a funny joke. I didn’t see it as this person making fun of gay people or the counterprotest. I think that they were just trying to make a tense situation a little lighter and distract from the hate speech so the church protestors couldn’t get the attention or the platform that they were after.

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  3. I somewhat agree with your comment about the Finding Dory sign. Although yes it did bring a smile to many people’s faces I feel as though many were not that educated about the riot. Yes being their for support was awesome but was the Dory sign a joke? But also it was a very heated situation where things could’ve ended harshly. So if the sign was making people smile, I think, it was well worth it being there. I don’t think anyone was there, that was fighting for what was right, was making fun of anyone. I could be extremely wrong, and do not want to offend anyone, but this is just how I feel about the sign.

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  4. I saw the sign as more of a distraction. I feel like most of the signs were meant to be comedic relief related/trying to take the attention away from hatred. I saw multiple signs that had a funny blurb written on it and the fact that people walking by were more drawn to those signs over the ones pertaining to hate is much better. Even when I was first walking by, I didn’t really know what was going on. I was completely distracted by the homophobia because I was set on getting a picture of the Finding Dory sign to send to my friends. I think thats better than being distracted by signs of anger and hatred.

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  5. I saw sign as just a different form of protest. By having a irrelevant sign I think the protester is trying to make a statement about how random or meaningless the hateful signs and posters are. Also the best way to shut down these protests who’s main goal is to provoke is to ignore them. That was not the route UD students decided to take, which is fine but also the reason this protest lasted for upwards of 4 hours. I think he could be using his poster as a way of ignoring the people trying to provoke him and showing them their words don’t affect him.

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  6. I could not agree more with this sentiment. I was there counter-protesting along side many people who did indeed support the counter protesters. But, once the joke signs started coming it it began to hurt the cause of those who stood to represent those being marginalized and discriminated against. I agree that the sign did bother me too, but I appreciated its humor. There were too many signs that day that depicted things outside of the realm of the protest, but that’s something that will never really go away. Especially in an environment like ours where everything moved so quickly. I saw the protest grow from a small few peers to the two groups merged together divided by Delaware Avenue. The comical irrelevant signs definitely were bothersome to me, but I knew that they had no intention to hurt or create more tension outside of the original protesters.

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  7. I had heard about the protest but wasn’t able to go, from what I heard and saw in pictures I am proud of how many counter protesters there were from UD Students. As far as the Nemo sign goes, I can see where it might be a little annoying because of how irrelevant it was, however I also believe that the person who made the sign just wanted to put a smile on people’s faces. It seemed like there were a lot of negative signs from the other group and the person who made the sign could’ve just wanted to make a distraction and draw attention to something that was a little more optimistic.

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  8. Oh my, I saw the beginning of this protest when it was just the people from the church holding signs saying homosexuals end in hellfire and saying if you’re a whore you’re going to end in hell and everyone should believe in Jesus. I understand freedom of speech is a thing but how in the world did the campus allow this to happen RIGHT on the green??? I was so furious when I saw it but I had to go to class, later I saw snapchats of people holding gay flags and signs and it made me happy people were standing up to those ignorant people. I noticed there were a lot of fake signs which kinda made me laugh and I low-key wanted to make one too but you did bring the fact up up to my attention that it is pretty bad for people to do that. But I seriously hope this never happens again on this campus because it is extremely messed up.

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  9. i really do agree with your post. I think people should have been supporting each other right away no matter what. i think that it was so unfair that these people were even allowed on campus but at the same time i didnt agreee with the fact that people made a mockery of the event as a whole. I think another thing everyone can agree on is how amazing all our student body and faculty acted and fought back. I have never been more proud to be a part of UD and this event is one thing i will definitely will always remember!

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