Let me begin by saying
that much like Deray McKesson who recently spoke with Wolf Blitzer on CNN (http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/activist-smacks-down-wolf-blitzer-you-are-suggesting-broken-windows-are-worse-than-broken-spines/)
I support peaceful protesting, and having trained police officers in crisis
intervention I have great respect for law enforcement and the risks they take and
also know that there are dedicated, kind, caring, and compassionate people who
serve on the police force. At the same time, much like McKesson I refuse to
criticize those who have rioted over the police brutality that has resulted in
the death of Freddie Gray. The predominant focus of the media over the last few
days on destruction of property in regard to the Baltimore riots, and the
predominant response of white people in concern over riots that have resulted
in property damage (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/28/1380944/-The-Dominant-White-Response-to-Baltimore-Shows-Why-Black-Residents-are-Justified-in-their-Anger)
to be quite frank is unacceptable. Comparisons between movements can be
problematic, and I don’t want to draw direct comparisons, rather I want to highlight
two other movements here to express why I personally cannot condemn these riots
and to hopefully illustrate why focusing on condemnation of riots versus
condemnation of the despicable inequities which caused those riots is hypocritical.
Reflecting on the movement of my own marginalized
community, the queer community, those of us who identify across the LGBTQ
spectrum cannot so easily condemn rioting when riots are exactly what started
our modern movement for civil rights equality at Stonewall in 1969 (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/stonewall-intro/).
We retaliated against police raids and arrests that were destroying our
communities and our lives in that moment and began a movement for our rights
and for change which I as an openly gay man in my mid 20s have reaped the benefits
of and am thankful for. I should also note that our community rose up in riot
when the killer of Harvey Milk was convicted of only manslaughter rather than
murder in 1979, receiving a sentence of 7 years (which wound up only being 4)
rather than a harsher sentence (http://thecastro.net/milk/whitenight.html).
Given these events and the impact they had I cannot condemn the rioting that is
currently happening because it would be hypocritical to say that my community
was allowed to riot against injustice enforced and enacted by the police but
communities of color are not permitted to do the same.
While this example of rioting as rejection of
oppression is one that feels more salient to me there is another that is
applicable to a much larger proportion of the American populous. I think we
forget the history of our nation in these moments and that the United States
itself was born out of retaliation against oppression. The Boston Massacre of
1770 where 5 men were killed by British soldiers, the passage of the Tea Act of
1773 which symbolized the concept of “taxation without representation” and led
to the Boston Tea Party, and other oppressive acts of the British government led
to fighting with British soldiers, the declaring of independence in 1776, and
fighting a war to escape an oppressive regime (http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/american-revolution-history). The colonization of the Americas was an oppressive act in and of itself and,
again, it is not my intent to make direct comparisons here between movements or
between British soldiers and modern police; however, I think it’s important to
realize that when people are oppressed they react.
Black Americans experience economic inequity,
educational inequity, and disproportionate rates of incarceration (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/upshot/americas-racial-divide-charted.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1;
http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet)
just to name a few systemic injustices. I am not saying rioting will inevitably
right those injustices, but I am saying what needs to be criticized here are
the oppressions, the inequities, the injustices, not the breaking of windows.
