Protests are all the rage now — literally and figuratively. My home, the Yay Area, has been making news cycles with images of police clashing with Oakland and Berkeley protesters, Occupy Wall Street remains a fixture in daily news and Tea Partiers continue to crash political events and institutions.

To the horror of some, the jubilance of others and the confusion of few, authority is being challenged from all sides. And yet, these sides have not found a common enemy in their common enemy.

Perhaps the best example of this was found in a recent episode of National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More”. Host Michel Martin brought together a representative from the Tea Party, an Occupy Wall Street participant and a public intellectual invested in the idea of these groups working together. What could have proceeded as a round table discussion on shared values and potential alliances quickly devolved into an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show”.

From this I learned two things. First, public radio really can be scandalous. But more important, these are two groups who deny their allegiance to either political party but are unable to work together because of the old left-right split. Both representatives spoke to the fundamental, philosophical difference in their form of civil disobedience. That’s not surprising, as the concept of civil disobedience itself has a complicated genealogy.

Neither bad-ass founding father nor patriotic revolutionary introduced the practice of civil disobedience. Of all people, civil disobedience is attributed to Henry David Thoreau, a poet and author best known for Walden, or his reflections from living the simple life in nature on the land and dime of his buddy, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

His essay Civil Disobedience was the product of his frustration with the American practice of slavery and recent imperialist move to expand into Mexico. In it, he begins with the claim that government cannot be justified and writes, “That government is best which governs least.” This is the Thoreau conservative protesters like to channel.

He then moves to scrutinize democracy, arguing that rule by majority hardly produces virtuous rule. He wonders on paper why he should “… resign his conscience to the legislator.” Thoreau argues that everyone has a conscience for a reason, and that reason is to do what he or she thinks right. Maybe this is the Thoreau channeled by Occupy protesters, who have balked the system to set up their own mode of autonomous existence.

Later in the essay, he calls for revolution in order to challenge an inherently unjust system. His form of revolution, often associated with the title of his essay, calls on the reader to disengage from the government, to cease following the government’s unjust laws and paying taxes used for unjust purposes.

Decades later, his readers would include Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom were clear in identifying their demonstration tactics with the conclusions reached by Thoreau. Gandhi placed Thoreau among the “most moral men America has produced.” The Reverend King noted in his autobiography his tendency to frequently reread this essay, drawing the conclusion that “… noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”

Recently, both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have identified their role in carrying forth that legacy. Where there was an opportunity to find common ground, many attacked the Tea Party’s claim to King, citing a fundamental difference between the Tea Party’s message and the ideals of the Civil Rights Era. The Tea Party, for its part, sent out e-mails last month comparing images of flag-bearing Tea Party protesters to grungy Occupy Wall Street protesters, apparently to suggest a fundamental difference between the distinctly American spirit of revolution and Occupy.

Although Thoreau’s praxis of civil disobedience has been associated with protest movements for different reasons by both the left and the right, I’d like to think his brand of revolutionary change was apolitical, unconcerned with what side of the aisle the chips fell. If current movements are turning their back to each other, maybe this shows that our movements for change aren’t as invested in change as they think.

You can protest RAJIV NARAYAN at rrnarayan@ucdavis.edu.

First impressions: I’m a tall Indian girl, who can seem reserved and awkward at first. However, if you see me at a party where they’re blasting some ghetto rap music, you will probably see me cat-daddying it up. My love of rap and hip-hop music has resulted in a direct correlation to my recent attraction to African American men. Yes, people, I have been hit by jungle fever.

I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I’m rarely attracted to men of my own race, much to mother’s appall. My friend Nicole thinks I am attracted to black men because they are much cooler versions of Indian men, which may or may not be true.

I guess I kind of brought this crazy obsession upon myself. This past summer, while flipping channels, I found a VH1 Behind the Music documentary on Lil Wayne. This resulted in me buying a shirt with Weezy’s face on it and attempting to call the local radio station to win concert tickets.

While watching the documentary, I became even more hooked on Drake (yes, wheelchair Jimmy from “Degrassi”). Not only did I download the leak of his album Take Care (in stores today!), I also pre-ordered it on Amazon just to support him. I’ve got posters of him and he is my current phone background. I’m not crazy, just a tad obsessed. This past weekend I won tickets to see him live in December, so my life is pretty much made.

While doing more channel surfing over the summer, I ultimately landed on BET’s “106 & Park”, where they play the top 10 hip-hop/rap music videos. The show soon became a daily ritual that I would make time in my lackluster schedule for. Something about being able to identify the obscure rappers that showed up randomly in the music videos made me feel like a music connoisseur.

To add more excitement to this ritual, my brother and I would have Rick Ross grunting competitions while watching the music video for DJ Khaled’s “I’m on One.” Pretty soon, it became second-nature to spit Busta Rhyme’s rap in “Look at Me Now” and memorize the songs on ‘Ye and Jay’s “Watch the Throne.”

By the end of summer, I was not only darker in skin tone, but also had a greater understanding of African American culture, or at least rap music. There was only one thing left to do: start scouting out those men.

Many of my closest friends began to knowingly point out black guys to me. They were now aware that my type had shifted from tall brunette men to tall African American men and helped me scout out these hotties.

Most people are taken aback when they hear about my obsession with rap music. I recently came out to my fraternity about my attraction to black men and hip hop. Here was this quiet Indian girl who seemed like nothing more than a hard-working student and now she’s in the living room teaching people how to dougie and yelling about how much she loves Drake.

I’m not one of those girls that will exclusively date black guys, though, I’m still open minded to men of all types. I did get an application to join the Black Student Union, but I’ve been a little too intimidated to turn it in because I lack the confidence to go in there and check it out.

My jungle fever, although recent, has become a huge part of all aspects of my life, as strange as that may sound. I’ve gone from listening to alternative bands like Linkin Park and Incubus to rap music from the likes of E-40 to Childish Gambino.

This music has also gotten me more into dancing because who doesn’t want to take a hip-hop class where you learn to dance to your favorite songs? Not only do I enjoy dancing and listening to rap and hip hop, but I feel like I have become more open-minded through the experience. So next time you’re at a party, don’t be surprised if you see me trying to jerk and cat daddy at the same time to impress that hot Drake look-alike in the corner. Don’t hate, I’m just being me.

MEDHA SRIDHAR loves her dark chocolate. If you want to accompany her to a BSU meeting, contact her at mdsridhar@ucdavis.edu.