(Re)conceptualizing resistance to (re)conceptualize campus climate challenges: Analyzing the resistant register of student reflection writing in a university diversity course

Abstract

While working on my dissertation project, a situation arose in Egypt that exemplifies the sheer power of language as social action. On January 25, 2011, thousands of protestors filed through streets of several Egyptian towns and cities demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, their leader for over thirty years. Mubarak was a man who had grown increasingly unpopular due to his regime's "iron-fisted approach to security," his "monopoly on power," and his "autocratic rule" through laws that allowed "police to arrest people without charge, detain prisoners indefinitely" and "limit freedom of expression and assembly" (New York Times, 2011, para. 32). After a thirty year regime, in January of 2011, protestors took to the streets, demanding freedom, as well as the removal of Mubarak. Less than a month later, on February 9 th , the people thought their cries had been heeded; Egyptians were promised by Mubarak's party that the President would step down. Upon hearing this, the nation of Egypt, as well as the rest of the world, began to applaud the power of social protests. In fact, United States President Barack Obama issued the statement that "…we are witnessing history unfold. It's a moment of transformation that's taking place because the people of Egypt are calling for change" (New York Times, 2011, para. 19). Yet, on the following day, February 10 th , during a seventeen minute speech, Mubarak refused to leave. Thousands of protestors became outraged. While they had been promised that their cries had been heard and that Mubarak would leave, the leader instead insisted that he would continue to govern and to "shoulder" his responsibility towards the Egyptian constitution.