Following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, national unrest has brought millions of protestors out from coast to coast. Most have been peaceful — but not all.
Cop cars and police precincts have been set ablaze, stores looted and vandalized, statues memorializing racists toppled. The police themselves have been repeatedly caught on video instigating violence and using military-grade weaponry against protesters.
Critics of the protests have focused entirely on the looting, often ignoring police brutality. They’ll tell people to protest more like Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps forgetting that he called riots “the language of the unheard” — and that King himself was assassinated.
These complaints lack a basic understanding of American history. Historically, peaceful protests are rare. And as a political act, they’re fairly new.
Looking back at the early days of the American republic, riots, rebellions, and acts of insurrection — from the Whiskey Rebellion under George Washington to Fries’s Rebellion under John Adams — were so commonplace that the Insurrection Act of 1807 had to be passed to suppress them.
From 1800 to 1850, race riots between freed African Americans and new immigrants like the Irish were frequent. An estimated 250 slave revolts were suppressed by extreme force. Meanwhile white Americans also found time to riot over rent, taxes, and land disputes.
The next 50 years were no different. Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic “Know-Nothing” riots cropped up from Baltimore to New Orleans in the 1850s, while the Colfax massacre in Louisiana saw 100 black men killed by a white militia in 1873.
The labor movement brought further clashes. Chicago’s historic Haymarket Square riots of 1886 called for the eight-hour workday, while the May Day riots of 1894 shook Cleveland over extremely high unemployment. Throughout the early 1900s, police clashed repeatedly with steelworkers, mineworkers, and other unionists.
Black Americans were terrorized by whites all the while, including in two of the most notorious race riots in history: Florida’s Rosewood massacre and the destruction of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.
Peaceful protests were not widely employed as a legitimate form of protest until the suffrage movement. But even then, peaceful protests were often met with the same vitriol as “violent” ones — especially when those protests were by people of color.
At the height of the civil rights movement in 1966, two-thirds of Americans had an unfavorable view of MLK in 1966. By the time he was assassinated, about 75 percent disapproved, according to a 1968 Harris Poll.
What followed? Riots. A wave of uprisings overtook 100 U.S. cities in wake of the slaying of King. But sometimes, riots work — these “Assassination Riots” in April 1968 led to the direct passage of the Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Act.
The next year, a transformative LGBTQ civil rights movement began with the Stonewall Riot.
For a more recent example, former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick attempted to resurrect an MLK-esque peaceful protest and was effectively blackballed from the NFL. The right ridiculed him and denounced his followers with extreme vitriol.
However, as the George Floyd protests unleashed a wave of anger, major cities announced plans to move funds out of their racist police departments. Other reforms followed, with Minneapolis even announcing plans to disband its police altogether.
But debating the effectiveness or morality of riot-like protests isn’t as important as examining who can riot historically and who can’t. White men achieved many political goals through rioting. And rioting by white sports fans is often less demonized than even peaceful protests by black and brown communities.
The real problem may be that some Americans don’t want marginalized people engaging in protests at all — “peaceful” or not.
Ricky Riley is an Atlanta-based journalist and educator. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.
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ASF says
DEFENDING RIOTS–Are you kidding me??
I suppose the fact that the riots that have taken place in major cities have the most negative impact on the poor and disadvantaged in those locales is not worth noting…even by someone who calls himself “an educator.”
Donald says
Didn’t read much about all the robbery, fires, and utter destruction of public and private items.
Nor anything about all the cost of these item’s along with the taxes required to replace these itrm!
Karen says
Yes. American history is taught in high school. 11th grade. Review your high school education. This is not about college!
Shelly says
Peaceful protests are not rare, they’re more common than you think. These rioters are being bussed in and paid by George Soros but I’m sure your Liberal self already knew that. What you’re saying is that it’s ok for people to lose their jobs, businesses and home due to criminal activity by these “protesters”. I hope these “protesters don’t harm anyone or anything close to you. Sounds to me like you are siding with the rioters and it’s ok to destroy people’s property.
ASF says
“Paid for by George Soros”? Nice little touch of Anti Semitism there. Too bad it’s a meme that anyone with any sense rejects, who is not already predisposed to blaming Jews-excuse-me-Zionists for everything negative in their comic book universe
Palmcoaster says
Nice try “Shelly says” trying to impersonate “Sherry says” for the unsuspecting are you from the same Russian origin?. No it is not okay to destroy peoples properties during protest by those incited by the far right calling them “comrades” as intercepted by twitter and other social media here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-fake-antifa-acount-white-supremacists-removal/ You need to go and tell crook Barr to go after his own base on the rioters and looters on line incitement and manipulating.
beachcomberT says
Americans “forgot” their history because U.S. textbooks have omitted mention of nearly all riots, especially the slave revolts and the various labor-union protests. The school boards of America (and Hollywood as a popularizer of history) have a lot of explaining to do.
Outsider says
Just a few weeks ago, the left was ranting about right wing protesters entering the Michigan State House with guns. No laws were broken, no one was injured, and the whole event was a peaceful reminder to the government that the people are in charge, not the other way around. The same thing happened in Virginia, although the former black face wearing Democratic governor declared a state of emergency when there was none, thus preventing protesters on the right from exercising their First and Second Amendment rights, claiming there was an imminent danger to society. Once again, the protests were peaceful, but the left cried foul anyway. Fast forward to last week, where rioters, looters, and anarchists, most of whom don’t give a shit about George Floyd, used the situation to advance their own terroristic agendas, beat innocent people to death, and grab a new TV or two, all, supposedly, in the memory of George Floyd. Suddenly, this is all acceptable to the same left that decried 100% peaceful protests by conservatives. The hypocrisy of the left is on full display once again, as liberal politicians fan the flames, coincidentally at the very same time Congressional testimony is proving that the FBI abused it’s power, knowingly issuing FISA warrants that they knew were bogus, to investigate an opposition political party that did nothing wrong. The Democratic politicians are more than happy to sacrifice peoples’ life work, and lives as long as it deflects attention away from their own crimes. Violence is always the go-to tool of the radical left, and their cohorts in the media are more than eager to provide cover.
Fredrick says
And not one protest for the 27 killed over the weekend in Chicago. No signs made with their names, no horse drawn carriages for their funerals. They don’t seem to matter.
Sherry says
What Tripe! Just more conspiracy theories from the “mindless” “CULT”:
These would-be vigilante groups seem to have fallen for a far-right hoax on social media, which warns that George Soros is sending busloads of anti-fascist agitators to small towns to destroy their white-owned farms and businesses. There is currently no evidence to support that claim, according to media reports and statements by multiple police departments across the United States.
Nevertheless, groups of right-wing gun-lovers have been standing on guard against a made-up invasion in recent weeks, amid unproven claims from the White House that protest-related looting is the work of Antifa, rather than opportunistic protesters.
Sherry says
Please check Snopes or Politifacts or ANY “credible” news source before posting your despicable garbage!
CLAIM: Photo shows two buses emblazoned with “Soros Riot Dance Squad” at a Milan, Michigan, gas station, offering proof that billionaire philanthropist George Soros and far-left militant groups are transporting out-of-town rioters to protests.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A photo of two unmarked buses was manipulated to add the words “Soros Riot Dance Squad” to the side of each vehicle. The buses are not being used to transport people to protests; they belong to a local transportation company and are providing a local shuttle service.
THE FACTS: On Tuesday, a photo said to show two “Soros Riot Dance Squad” buses passing through a gas station in a small town near Ann Arbor, Michigan, was circulating widely on social media.
Posts and articles claimed the image was proof that Soros, a Democratic donor, and anti-fascist networks were transporting militant rioters to protests from out of town.
“Democrats & George Soros are Paying & Busing In White Antifa to Come Into the Communities To Incite Violence & Destruction so that The Focus isn’t on Peaceful Protest & Justice For George Floyd,” one tweet using the photo said.
“It’s official, the riots are staged,” read the headline of an article about the photo on Intellihub, a website that has frequently spread false conspiracy theories.
By Tuesday afternoon, thousands had shared the post on Facebook and Twitter.
But a call to a local transportation company that owns buses like the ones in the photo revealed the image was not what it seemed.
Sean Duval, the owner of Golden Limousine International, confirmed the buses belong to his company, but they don’t have any writing on them.
Duval also provided evidence the photo was altered — a Facebook user who appeared to be from Milan, Michigan, on Friday posted the original version of the gas station photo, which showed they were plain white buses.
Dick Shalalie says
I was going to comment, but I can see previous commenters have this guy pegged & covered!!