It is difficult to expect lawfulness out of citizens when you allow lawlessness of the enforcers. Riots may not be the answer, but they get your attention, and that’s the point.
Over the last week, the country has been gripped by unrest and protests. Though most of these demonstrations have largely remained peaceful, there have been a few that have become violent. Stores, police precincts and cars, monuments, and other buildings have been looted, defaced, and burned. Bricks and other objects have been hurled at police. The demonstrations themselves have at times become riots. It’s important that during all of this we stay focused on what brought us to this point, police brutality.
The riots that America is experiencing are a response to years of oppression and violence that have been perpetrated against the black community by police and vigilantes. They are the direct result of the failure of our leaders to address the societal concerns of black people in America. In 2016 Colin Kaepernick took a knee to bring awareness to the mistreatment of black people in America. America’s response was, in the words of the current president, to “[g]et that son of a bitch off the field right now!” In response to the deaths and abuse of so many unarmed black people, we marched. Some of those marches created significant problems with traffic. In Memphis, one such march shut down the I-40 bridge connecting Tennessee and Arkansas. The resounding response was to condemn the marches for inconveniencing flow of traffic for a few hours. Black people in America have tried to be peaceful. We’ve tried to speak about injustice, but whenever the slightest inconvenience or pain is brought upon white people, our movement is dismissed as the “wrong way” of protesting. It is this inability to focus on fixing the root cause of protests that has brought us to this point.
Imagine needing to tell your significant other something important, perhaps that you need to go to the hospital. This person is currently located in another room of the house, and you call out their name. If they were to ignore you, you would likely raise your voice. If they continue to ignore you, you may yell, or call them, or text them, even throw something at their door, if you are incapable of moving. If that person continues to ignore you, you will eventually need to physically enter the room that they are in and tap them on the shoulder. These are all increasingly aggressive measures to get the attention of the person that you need to communicate with, much in the way that kneeling, marching, and ultimately rioting are efforts to get the attention of the American people and leaders.
Riots are a raw reaction to continued oppression and lack of action to protect and support the black community. And while riots may not be condoned as a response, they should be understood as a natural reaction to continued oppression. It is not reasonable to demand that each and every protestor respond perfectly (peacefully) even as the country continues to treat them imperfectly. We have seen peaceful protestors gassed and shot with pellets. We have seen them beaten by police and run over by their cars. We have seen police not only be the aggressors, but deliberately agitate otherwise peaceful demonstrations. We have watched as the President ordered governors to dominate protestors, both violent and peaceful. This is not the answer. If we want to solve the problem of riots; if we want to stop marchers from shutting down bridges; if we want to have people stand up and be proud to sing the national anthem; we have to focus on the problem, which is fixing the injustices that black people face each and every day.
We have your attention now. Please do not dismiss an entire movement and the societal problems it seeks to address because you disagree with the actions of a few.
