March for Science SF
Last Saturday at the late age of 19, I marched for the first time.
I marched alongside strangers and friends alike in the March for Science in San Francisco and was a part of a tremendously passionate crowd for a few hours while we trekked down Market Street towards Civic Center Plaza.
Witty signs aside, the march itself was significantly disorganized compared to the Women’s March or Veteran’s March in NY (as I was told by my friends). Personally, as my first march, I found it disorganized as well but appropriately so. People maintained themselves very well, and I saw no incidences of violence.
One thing I thought was interesting was the use of science march as a platform for people to advance their own agendas. Alongside signs for a greener Earth and prevention of federal scientific funding cuts were caricatures of Trump, direct jabs at conservatives, and quotes on feminism.
Awaiting us at the end of the march was a science fair that wasn’t really a science fair. I was expecting something more community-involved with presentations by students and professional scientists on science but instead was greeted at the end of the march with a PR fair with advertisement opportunities for businesses and companies. Although, to offset the cynicism, there were some worthy causes represented there, such as the Mission Science Workshop which advocates hands-on science education.
As glorious as the march was, with its crowds upon crowds of thousands of stimulated and stimulating people, I wonder about its impacts and purpose. It truly felt like a selective march for a selective audience.
For what purpose does the march exist: to bring together those with the faith and passion and ambition for continued science, or to un-polarize the sentiment about science across various communities? If the former, then the march has made great strides, but if the latter, then I am less optimistic. The marches themselves are placed in areas where the participants are already eager to partake in science advocacy: for example, Washington DC and San Francisco. Furthermore, many of the signs were addressed to a selective audience. We had signs that included puns on cos(1), the wordy process and operational definition of peer review — ultimately, things that if you thought you didn’t fulfill the stereotype of scientist for, then they might cause you to feel detached from the cause.
Impact wise, is it enough to galvanize scientists to partake in community and political affairs? Bridging the science to society gap is an achievement of and in itself, yet with this in mind, the focus on this objective involves a shift of dynamics for the march. It becomes no longer a march for science but a march for scientists.
