Zaac
Well-Known Member
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But when considered in the light of history, this view is not just unfair but ridiculous.
These days, riots are almost universally associated with black urban communities. But before the 1960s, "race riots" meant white riots, almost universally directed against blacks. Whether it was competition for jobs (Cincinnati: 1841), resentment at black veterans (Memphis: 1866; many cities: 1919), paranoia over black sexuality (Atlanta: 1906), or resentment at blacks moving into white communities (Detroit: 1943), American whites have historically needed little excuse to conduct mob violence against African-Americans.
This violence was not random or accidental. It was part of the American system of racial domination. It was not a coincidence that when a riot got going in 1921 in Tulsa, white mobs, assisted by local authorities, proceeded to loot and torch the entire black district of Greenwood — then the richest black community in the nation — burning over 1,200 homes and killing dozens.
More generally, as Hamden Rice points out, semi-random psychotic violence against black men was the keystone institution of Jim Crow. It was what kept blacks in terrified submission, lest they be lynched on the slightest (or no) pretext.
Judged by its own racist objectives, we must admit this violence was a huge success, though it was not the only part of white supremacy. Blacks were kept as a subordinate caste. What wealth they managed to build up was largely stolen or destroyed. They were kept from living in white neighborhoods.
That kind of white riot doesn't happen anymore — today's white riots are usually about sports or pumpkins. But their legacy, along with that of extensive racist government policy, are still with us today. Indeed, white riots were a key factor in the creation of black ghettos. As the Kerner Report, which studied the causes of the race riots of 1967, put it: "White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it."
The long history of white rioting does not in itself justify a black version, of course. Tactical questions will always be different for a minority fighting state oppression. Martin Luther King made a good case for disavowing riots as poor tactics that give the white community an escape from guilt.
At any rate, the issue at hand is the golly-gee "America Is Good" lens through which so much mainstream commentary is unthinkingly framed, as if a relatively small riot is a huge deviation from the historic norm of strict non-violence. It's not just historically blinkered but also blind to current events. Freddie Gray's death was only the most recent controversy for a police department that routinely brutalizes its black residents:
Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson. [Baltimore Sun]
...
http://theweek.com/articles/552215/baltimore-americas-double-standard-violence
But when considered in the light of history, this view is not just unfair but ridiculous.
These days, riots are almost universally associated with black urban communities. But before the 1960s, "race riots" meant white riots, almost universally directed against blacks. Whether it was competition for jobs (Cincinnati: 1841), resentment at black veterans (Memphis: 1866; many cities: 1919), paranoia over black sexuality (Atlanta: 1906), or resentment at blacks moving into white communities (Detroit: 1943), American whites have historically needed little excuse to conduct mob violence against African-Americans.
This violence was not random or accidental. It was part of the American system of racial domination. It was not a coincidence that when a riot got going in 1921 in Tulsa, white mobs, assisted by local authorities, proceeded to loot and torch the entire black district of Greenwood — then the richest black community in the nation — burning over 1,200 homes and killing dozens.
More generally, as Hamden Rice points out, semi-random psychotic violence against black men was the keystone institution of Jim Crow. It was what kept blacks in terrified submission, lest they be lynched on the slightest (or no) pretext.
Judged by its own racist objectives, we must admit this violence was a huge success, though it was not the only part of white supremacy. Blacks were kept as a subordinate caste. What wealth they managed to build up was largely stolen or destroyed. They were kept from living in white neighborhoods.
That kind of white riot doesn't happen anymore — today's white riots are usually about sports or pumpkins. But their legacy, along with that of extensive racist government policy, are still with us today. Indeed, white riots were a key factor in the creation of black ghettos. As the Kerner Report, which studied the causes of the race riots of 1967, put it: "White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it."
The long history of white rioting does not in itself justify a black version, of course. Tactical questions will always be different for a minority fighting state oppression. Martin Luther King made a good case for disavowing riots as poor tactics that give the white community an escape from guilt.
At any rate, the issue at hand is the golly-gee "America Is Good" lens through which so much mainstream commentary is unthinkingly framed, as if a relatively small riot is a huge deviation from the historic norm of strict non-violence. It's not just historically blinkered but also blind to current events. Freddie Gray's death was only the most recent controversy for a police department that routinely brutalizes its black residents:
Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson. [Baltimore Sun]
...
http://theweek.com/articles/552215/baltimore-americas-double-standard-violence
