Bernie Sanders and the absent revolution

Over winter break, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders visited the University of Massachusetts and thousands of people attempted to attend his rally at the Fine Arts Center.

On February 22nd, Mr. Sanders returned to the valley and, again, thousands of people greeted him, this time with more students in the area than his last visit. Students began to line up at Mullins Center hours before the doors even opened.

Given the opportunity to ask Mr. Sanders a question, I would have asked him if those in the audience were the revolutionaries he speaks about and if he has pride in them.

Mr. Sanders makes a point of reminding everyone that a political revolution will not be him alone, but the millions of people who support him joining the political process and demanding the end of corruption in Washington.

Despite the consistent rhetoric, I cannot help but feel that he should be disappointed in his revolution thus far. Over the past few months, many anti-Semitic incidents occurred at this university.

On February 9th, the administration held a solidarity event in front of the Fine Arts Center and only around eighty students attended. When the Coalition to End Rape Culture holds rallies to secure better treatment of survivors, only a hundred students show up.

Last year, after racially charged death threats were written on multiple students’ doors, only around five hundred students attended the most populous of the following events, quickly dwindling to around one hundred attendees at later rallies.

For reference, Mr. Sanders’ event at Mullins had twenty times the attendance as the largest rally against death threats on this campus had and ninety times the average protest on this campus. Students cannot fill up Mahar to address racism on campus, but Mullins overflows when they are asked to sit and do nothing to partake in a “revolution.”

So where are his revolutionaries when this campus faces racism, sexual assault, homophobia and anti-Semitism? While the administration does not adequately advertise all rallies and protests, that alone should not result in such low attendance. Other students claim to have been too busy to attend rallies at UMass to improve its environment for women and students of color, yet they seem to have found the time to attend Mr. Sanders’ rally.

When faced with racial death threats and vandalism, we act as though they are isolated incidents unworthy of our response despite them becoming commonplace. To Mr. Sanders’ supporters I ask: how do you intend on causing a nationwide political revolution when you cannot be bothered to have a revolution on this campus?

Mr. Sanders and his supporters boast his record during the Civil Rights Movement, though from what I have seen on this campus, few at Mullins would have been with him at those campus protests or walked with Martin Luther King, Jr. on Washington.

The people who shaped our country into what it is today did so not by simply voting for a candidate, but by acting on their firmly held beliefs. It would do everyone well to remember what actual revolutionaries have done.

Marching from Selma to Montgomery was an act of revolutionaries. Convening at Seneca Falls was an act of revolutionaries. Rioting at Stonewall was an act of revolutionaries. Taking over New Africa House and demanding fair treatment was an act of revolutionaries. Today, saying, “black lives matter” is an act of revolutionaries.

To Mr. Sanders’ supporters: what have you done lately?