The Right to Riot: Black Violence in the Black Lives Matter Movement
The civil unrest following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown as well as the subsequent rise of the Black Lives Movement has caused a social uproar amongst whites and blacks in contemporary America. Besides for addressing controversial issues such as police brutality and mass-incarceration, the Black Lives Matter movement has received much criticism because it’s protest tactics, specifically in Ferguson, contrasted to the composed nature of the Civil Rights Struggle. However, unlike the Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter is not just a fight for black participatory rights within America’s democratic framework, but it is an expression of outrage for the racial inequalities that still exist within American society. Black Lives Matter does not solely look to transform America’s political landscape, but to combat social stigmas that led to this racial inequality to begin with. Although the violent protests after Brown’s death deviated from the exemplary character of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60’s, black people should have the right to violently display their anger against ongoing racial problems in America.
To briefly state, the fatal shooting of Michael Brown on August 9th, 2014 came as an immense shock for members of the African-American community. This is because a white officer, Darren Wilson, did not only unlawfully kill Brown, an unarmed black teenager, but Brown’s body was also left to rot in the street for over 4 hours after the incident. Over the course of the first month after Brown’s death, protestors destroyed $250,000 worth of damages, 20 people were sent to the hospital, and one person was shot for pointing a gun at a police officer (Kohler, pars 7-13). After the unrest in Ferguson officially subsided in November of 2015, 25 businesses were burned down, 2 cop cars were destroyed and over 80 people were arrested. Although these riots tarnished Black Lives Matter as a militant movement, in this essay, I hope to give a different perspective on the use of violence, especially in the face of current racial inequities that still persist within today’s society.
Since Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans have always been expected to act as exemplary, disciplined, and well-behaved citizens in the face of racial terror and social injustice. In his essay Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom, Martin Luther King Jr. argues that violence as a form of protest is futile and childish. In his words, King asserts that “violence as a strategy for social change in America is nonexistent” and even claims that violent protests is nothing more than the “posturing of cowards whose bold talk produces no action and signifies nothing” (King, 92). Regarding the economic problems that plagued blacks in urban ghettos, where black militancy was on the rise, King argues that
If one is in search of a better job, it does not help to burn down the factory. If one needs more adequate education, shooting the principal will not help, or if housing is the goal, only building and construction will produce that end. To destroy anything, person or property, can’t bring us closer to the goal that we seek…Achievement of these goals will be a lot more difficult and require much more discipline, understanding, organization and sacrifice” (King, 94-5)
However, if African-Americans are consistently subjected to discriminatory laws that bar them equal access to proper schooling and economic opportunities, do they not have a right to violently display their anger? Just as the founding fathers had the right to violently fight against British tyrannical rule, black citizens should have the undeniable right to rise up against injustice perpetuated by their white oppressors. Why are black citizens expected to comply with a system that has done more to deny their existence, than provide them with their civil and democratic rights? Juliette Hooker, a Professor of Political at Brown University who specializes in racial justice, argues that riots, specifically the ones that took place in Ferguson, do not constitute a failure within the movement towards racial equality, but a form of “democratic repair” (Hooker 462). In her account, she believes that, in spite of the criticisms Black Lives Matters has for its provocations of violence against the police, these riots allow black citizens to express their pain and make their loss viable to a racial order that demands that they sacrifice both by not by expressing anger and grief at sad losses, and also by peacefully acquiescing to them (Hooker 464).
In other words, instead of capitulating to the institutionalized structures that consistently bar them from being first-class citizens, African-Americans use these riots to express their anger with the system and to prove their existence.
Furthermore, the riots that followed Brown’s fatal shooting on August 9th, 2014 should not be regarded as criminal acts, but as fervent expressions of black humanity. Different from the Civil Rights Struggle, Black Lives Matter does not solely concern themselves with civil and political rights but a general appeal to a “black humanity.” As Ashley Yates, a Ferguson activist and co-founder of Millennial United, stated “If you can see a dead black boy lie in the street for four and a half hours and that doesn’t make you angry, then you lack humanity” (Harris, par 12). Rather than viewing the Ferguson rioters as “thugs” or ‘criminals,’ labeled that are most commonly attributed by conservative news pundits, these protestors simply angry and resentful of how blacks are treated on a daily basis (Fox News). Many Americans, especially those who buy in the idea of American exceptionalism, believe that we still live in a ‘post-racial’ society but the statistical figures beg to differ. Although blacks only make up 15% of the general population, they represent over 60% of the 2.2 million prisoners in America (NAACP, Criminal Justice Sheet; ACLU, Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws). Not only are blacks incarcerated at more 5 times the rate of whites but also the average wealth for white families is seven times higher than that of black families (Jones, par 2). The Ferguson riots do not represent a black disregard of the American justice system, but an active frustration with it. As Melvin Rogers, an Associate Professor from Brown University, asserts “Brown’s death signifies mirror the larger trend across the nation in which Black Americans are politically disenfranchised and suffer at alarming rates of being victimized, criminalized, and imprisoned” (Rogers, par 7). Although the Jim Crow laws have been abolished over six-decades ago, black people are still segregated into decrepit ghettos, heavily policed, and are killed by members of law-enforcement on a regular basis. Every store looted signifies a desperate calling for help. Every window smashed symbolizes a sense of fear of being stripped of your humanity and massacred on the street like some animal. And every building burnt indicates a deep frustration with a system that degrades and humiliates a group of people solely based on the color of their skin.
Furthermore, contrary to popular conception, violence, before the advent of the Black Panther Party in 1966, also played a large role in the Civil Rights Movement. Along with the McComb and the Birmingham riots, which were both in response to Klan terror, the Deacons for Defense (the Deacons), a Southern black militia group dedicated to protecting civil rights activists, were able to advance the racial struggle in America. Unlike Black Nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam or the Black Panther Party, the Deacons did not directly challenge King as well as members of his nonviolence movement but actually did a great deal to help them. In fact, the Deacons, especially in their violent struggle in Bogalusa in 1964, helped apply much pressure towards the federal government to reinforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Bill of Rights. After a violent confrontation with the Klan as well as racist state officials in Bogalusa, Louisiana in May of 1965, the Deacons “forced city officials and business leaders to agree to abolish all segregation laws, provide equal protection under the law for protesters, integrate city government and police, and carry out physical improvements in the black neighborhoods” (Hill 265). In spite of the stereotypic expectation that all blacks were timid and meek, the Deacons became a feared group amongst Southern whites, especially when they killed a white attacker, Alton Crowe, in the Bogalusa incident. This is not to say that nonviolence did not dominate the Civil Rights narrative, but that violence played a significant role within it. As Martin Luther King Jr. even stated, black people have ‘‘many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations” about their constant subjugation in American society, and if they are not able to express these feelings ‘‘they will come out in ominous expressions of violence” (Hill, 263). So, in all, it is unfair to censure the events in Ferguson for being violent and riotous as the Deacons of Defense have demonstrated that, sometimes, violence and self-defense is necessary to promulgate social justice. Throughout American history, blacks have been “perpetually losers in American democracy” (Rogers, 6). So even when state officials, who supposedly exist to give every group equal protection, terrorize black people on a semi-daily basis, would it be really be surprising that black people have “pent-up frustrations” that must expressed through riots and violence?
In closing, the Ferguson riots should not be brand the Black Lives Matter as a criminal movement, but as a liberation struggle against persistent racism within American society. In spite of, somewhat, abandoning the insistent, nonviolent ideals of Martin Luther King Jr., Black Lives Matter protesters have a right to their anger and frustration. Even though many believe we live in a ‘post-racial’ society, black people are still stripped of their humanity, automatically branded as criminals and regularly slaughtered by members of law-enforcement. The sad truth is that even after federal legislation has been passed to prevent black inequality six-decades ago, racism still quietly lurks within the cloaks of American justice system. So instead of focusing on Black Lives Matter for its use of violence, we must consider the epidemic problems that promulgated their frustrations and anger to begin with. Furthermore, even though nonviolence has dominated the Civil Rights Struggle, black protestors have used violence, whether in the form of riots or armed militias, to advance the racial struggle and fight against white supremacy. In all, we should not expect the Ferguson protestors, or any black activist for that matter, to constantly act as exemplary citizens especially when their constitutional rights and humanity is consistently being denied at an institutional level. Bottom of Form
Works Cited
“Conclusion: Myth of Nonviolence .” The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement, by Lance Edward Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2004, pp. 258–273.
“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.
“Felony Disenfranchisement Laws (Map).” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/voter-restoration/felony-disenfranchisement-laws-map.
Harris , Fredick C. “The Next Civil Rights Movement?” Dissent Magazine, 2015, www.dissentmagazine.org/article/black-lives-matter-new-civil-rights-movement-fredrick-harris.
Hooker, Juliet. “Black Lives Matter and The Paradoxes Of U.S. Black Politics: From Democratic Sacrifice To Democratic Repair.” Advanced Research Collaborative Commons, 24 Apr. 2016, nexus.union.edu/pluginfile.php/367792/mod_resource/content/1/Black%20Lives%20Matter%20and%20the%20Paradoxes%20of%20US%20Black%20Politics.pdf.
“Ingraham: Media Turning Ferguson Riots 'Into Its Own Reality Show'.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 19 Aug. 2014, insider.foxnews.com/2014/08/19/ingraham-media-has-turned-ferguson-its-own-reality-show.
Jones , Janelle. “The Racial Wealth Gap: How African-Americans Have Been Shortchanged out of the Materials to Build Wealth.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/blog/the-racial-wealth-gap-how-african-americans-have-been-shortchanged-out-of-the-materials-to-build-wealth/.
King, Martin L, and James M. Washington. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986. Print.
Kohler, Jeremy. “Ferguson by the Numbers: Breakdown since Protests Began.” Stltoday.com, 22 Nov. 2014, www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ferguson-by-the-numbers-breakdown-since-protests-began/article_5ec448a4-3f08-5861-813c-d03bed1c9784.html.
Rogers, M. L. "Introduction: Disposable Lives." Theory & Event, vol. 17 no. 3, 2014. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/559375.
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