Edward Begonia Participant Observation

Edward Begonia

Soc 176 MW 2pm

March 9, 2014

Word Count: 637

Participant Observation

            For my participant observation, I decided to participate in the March Forth event on campus on Tuesday, March 4. Due to other classes as well as work, I was only able to make it to the march itself, rather than the entire event, which included an open mic, music with the Raging Grannies, dancing with the Rise-Up Dancers, a raffle, and information on causes that are in need of awareness today. There were a lot of tables there that had information for the causes, which include; Animal Rights, Education, Environment, Pretrial Expansion, Sweatshops, Hunger, Peace, Women’s Issues, Sexual Violence, and more. I arrived about fifteen minutes prior to the beginning of the march, and I took a look around and talked to some of the booths there about these causes. It was really great to see so many people come together for different causes. Of course, if it were only one cause, there is a possibility that everyone won’t show up because they can’t all come together to support just one cause. We were all gathered in the free speech area on Fresno State campus.

            Once the march began, we formed a large line that spread about 75 yards long. Everyone had at least one sign, and from what I saw, a couple had two signs. Everyone was representing different causes. I was representing and marching for animal rights. The sign I was holding said, “What do we want? Animal Rights. When do we want them? MEOW!” We walked all around campus, from Shaw to Barstow. I was pretty shocked that the people participation in the march were actually into it. A lot of the time, when something like this is going on, it looks like people are there because they have to be, but in this march, people were actually shouting out for their cause and were really into it. The only downside that I found in the march was that there weren’t very many people walking around campus at the time we marched. We just choose a bad time, when students and faculty were busy in class or not there at that time.

            What I noticed about the effect we had on the people that were able to see us, was attentiveness. Everyone was looking at us trying to see what was going on. As we marched through campus, I saw some strange looks, maybe confusion. I could tell that everyone was trying to read the signs. Maybe they looked confused because all of the signs said something different. Maybe they weren’t confused, just interested. As someone who is on campus everyday, you don’t see a large group like ours marching with signs very often. Once we got to Shaw, all of the people driving were looking at us. We even got a few honks. It’s hard to tell what people were thinking, but no one was rude, or nobody shouted anything negative at us. Honestly, we didn’t get a lot of people coming up to us asking questions. I think that this is because people are scared to come up to that. I know that I would be. If I saw a large group marching with signs, I wouldn’t approach them, in fact, I may even try to avoid them and walk the other way. However I didn’t see that either, people avoiding us.

            Because this is not something you see everyday, I believe that we broke a social norm. It was exhilarating, being apart of such important causes. Even though some people give us some strange looks, it’s worth the cause. One could only wish that someday, people wont look at such a powerful way of supporting causes to be seen as deviant, or conflicting with the social norms.