Hi Abby!
As a participant observer, yes, there were moments where I was exposed, or I saw other people being exposed to tear gas. A big problem with riot control agents is that one, they should not in my opinion every be used and when they are used, they end up just targeting everyone at once and hurting innocent people at a protest. The degree of violence that the federal or police officer inflicted on the protestors in response to protestors throwing things or doing graffiti was extremely unbalanced and unjust.
This idea of community that I found in my research was something I found surprising. I think in protests there is sometimes the mentality of safety for the individual when in reality that is not really the case, the protests really highlighted how community can be created in an urban space and how it can reflect the social change that people want to see in a city.

Hi Abby!
As a participant observer, yes, there were moments where I was exposed, or I saw other people being exposed to tear gas. A big problem with riot control agents is that one, they should not in my opinion every be used and when they are used, they end up just targeting everyone at once and hurting innocent people at a protest. The degree of violence that the federal or police officer inflicted on the protestors in response to protestors throwing things or doing graffiti was extremely unbalanced and unjust.
This idea of community that I found in my research was something I found surprising. I think in protests there is sometimes the mentality of safety for the individual when in reality that is not really the case, the protests really highlighted how community can be created in an urban space and how it can reflect the social change that people want to see in a city.

Thank you Professor Park for this question! Your Religion in Pop Culture class ended up being one of my favorite classes I have taken at ĚÇĐÄVlog´«Ă˝. To address your question, yes, generational differences ended up being really interesting in my research. I think that generational difference is important to discuss because we do not often look at older women’s participation in protest, and so their perspective can get lost. In my actual paper, I talk a lot about how the Portland Raging Grannies were perceived at the protests vs. some of my younger participants as well as their different safety plans when being there. Members of the Portland Raging Grannies talked about how in certain moments they felt as if they weren’t being taken as seriously because people just saw them as “cute” or “frail,” which brought up other issues of the weakness that is associated with femininity. Younger participants, such as those in their 20’s, described more instances of being closer to the front lines of the protests, and participants who were mothers also had different experiences.

Thank you Professor Park for this question! Your Religion in Pop Culture class ended up being one of my favorite classes I have taken at ĚÇĐÄVlog´«Ă˝. To address your question, yes, generational differences ended up being really interesting in my research. I think that generational difference is important to discuss because we do not often look at older women’s participation in protest, and so their perspective can get lost. In my actual paper, I talk a lot about how the Portland Raging Grannies were perceived at the protests vs. some of my younger participants as well as their different safety plans when being there. Members of the Portland Raging Grannies talked about how in certain moments they felt as if they weren’t being taken as seriously because people just saw them as “cute” or “frail,” which brought up other issues of the weakness that is associated with femininity. Younger participants, such as those in their 20’s, described more instances of being closer to the front lines of the protests, and participants who were mothers also had different experiences.