On Tuesday, May 31st, I went to a gun violence walkout organized in light of recent shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and throughout the nation. The protest was at Gold Medal Park and US Bank Stadium, and I went hoping it would be meaningful and powerful. Instead, I left feeling disappointed and disheartened. I love student organizing, but this walkout just made everything seem more hopeless. 

When I arrived at Gold Medal Park, I was dismayed to see only a couple hundred people. The initial press meeting consisted of some people talking to cameras and taking cover pictures for articles that have been printed thousands of times already. Articles such as “‘We’re Very Tired Of This’: Student Walkout In Minneapolis Protests,” (CBS Minnesota) and “Minnesota students hold walkout, rally,” (KARE11) and “MN students walk out in protest of gun violence,” (Star Tribune) littered news feeds. It felt like we were missing class to give the television stations free airtime rather than making change.

Once we had walked to US Bank Stadium and the speeches began, I asked myself a series of questions. Why is the crowd mostly white? Why are we listening to Minnesota state senator Ron Latz talking about how he supports the police when the police stood outside Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, for more than an hour while there was an active threat inside of the building? Why is there a public school teacher telling us that even though he acknowledges the separation of church and state, he talked to his students about Jesus after one of the shootings because it was “too important”? 

These questions were bothersome and disheartening. The speaking seemed out of line and inappropriate. The turnout was saddening. These walkouts are our instant reflex to anything going wrong, without second thought, and oftentimes they are poorly planned and executed. They often have no point, no goal, and no intention behind them. And it’s not only me: many of us, by now, know that this knee-jerk reaction of local protest to violence or unfavorable public policy or a horrifying supreme court decision ends up accomplishing little. Perhaps that’s why this protest was overwhelmingly white. Maybe the people that were underrepresented were underrepresented because they’ve already experienced this burnout and hopelessness, they’ve seen so many protests and seen so little done that they know these walkouts won’t work. 

None of this is to diminish the real and imminent threat of school shootings. According to CDC data, gun violence is now the number one cause of death for adolescents. However, I don’t feel that this walkout has changed anything. I feel hopeless and powerless despite the fact that this is a topic we should have great autonomy over. This sentiment has been echoed by every single student I know. I’ve given up on any form of protest because regardless of attendance, nothing happens.  

I value school walkouts because when a large number of students leaves school unexcused for a particular cause, it really grabs attention and catalyzes change. Employee strikes are effective because they are able to leverage their collective labor power against the employer, who might cooperate with them in order to get the labor power back. In the same vein, walkouts are effective when they are protesting organizations or people that care about students being in school, so walking out gives the students leverage. But what was the point here? Schools and teachers are likely just as concerned about gun violence in schools as the students. All of the politicians that would support an AR-15 ban already do, and another local walkout won’t change the minds of those that don’t. Even if the protest was organized better, all we’d have gotten is a more interesting way of skipping class and more silence from our representatives. 

Everyone in Minneapolis remembers the George Floyd protests. Arguably some of the largest civil rights protests in the history of the country, the numbers of the movement did nothing as we were left with an increase in funding of the Minneapolis Police Department and a distinct lack of charges against those culpable. Perhaps it’s why these days every protest I go to seems to ring hollow. When 26 million people can’t gain an inch of traction in terms of social progress, what are we supposed to do? This is why people don’t believe that they work, because when they’ve seen one of the most massive movements in history fall short, they don’t see a point in participating in a miniscule protest.

We all know there will be another shooting in schools, and the data tells us that it will happen in the next few weeks.  Maybe this is a nihilistic viewpoint that refuses to acknowledge the strength of the community and the value of collective action, no matter how small. And maybe even though this protest wasn’t the best, others can still be. Either way, I think that we should reframe and reflect on our instagram-politics knee-jerk-reaction to have a walkout whenever anything goes wrong. It doesn’t seem to be helping anyone. In my opinion, at best, the walkout made a handful of students safer by taking them out of their schools for a few hours. At worst, it was a depressing waste of time.