MegansMom2011
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2016
Here's the thing, riots HAVE worked. The US would not exist, if not for people rioting.
Do riots always work? Of course not.
Does non-violence work? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were contemporaries. They even shook hands. One believed in non-violent, peaceful resistance in all circumstances, while the other could not embrace it - he felt violence was best oountered with violence, not pacifism. Yet they both contributed to the advancement of civil rights in their time. Where would we be now, if either of these men had not existed in their time?
Violent protest is sometimes co-opted by greedy, cynical interests. Innocents are hurt. Injustices are committed. No ethical person can support this kind of action.
But too often I suspect the cause of non-violent protest is also co-opted by people who just want to see the issue go away (and no, I'm not saying you're one of these people, I'm addressing this more generally).
I read statements like, "Don't stand in front of me." "Don't inconvenience me." "Keep your voices down." "Don't be offensive." "Don't make me uncomfortable." "If you - or anyone associated with you - resorts to violence you've automatically invalidated your position, and I won't care about it any more." "You don't even know why you're protesting!" "You're not rational and/or well-informed enough to even have an opinion on this." And I wonder... Did we ever support the cause? How civil and polite must protesters be, before we'll hear them? And if we can convince them to drop their voices to a mere whisper... will we then turn around and say, "Clearly it's not such an important issue, after all!"
The thing is, thousands of people do not spontaneously take to the streets for no reason at all. Riots happen in the face of real injustice. They happen when people feel they have no other way to make their voices heard, when they feel desperate. This was true during the American Revolution, and it's still true today.
I don't know the answer, but I refuse to dismiss the message, simply because I disapprove of the messenger.
Good post and even Martin Luther King supported protesting. He was not as docile as history tries to portray him.
"A riot is the language of the unheard." MLK
There's a quote where he says he does not condemn riots but condemns the CONDITIONS that lead to rioting. And from what I've seen on TV, since it was mentioned in this thread, there has been no BLM "rioting"
Anyone who can't ever empathize with any protestors on anything, but must in the group doing the oppressing