Picture of Los Angeles protest by Joseph Ngabo
If you haven’t already seen Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms address protesters in the city of Atlanta, stop what you’re doing and spend the next 5 minutes of your life watching the video.
Her emotion is something to behold. It’s an incredible example of her not simply protecting the city as its mayor, she’s defending her home. She speaks as both a black woman and also as a mother, worried and fearful for the safety of her children. The video has since gone viral though, so I’m willing to bet you’ve already seen it. I even had a friend in South Africa tell me he had already seen it when I mentioned to him! He had also seen the equally moving speech by Killer Mike, a local influential musician and business leader in Atlanta, who also pled to the people of Atlanta not to destroy the city. The two of them spoke about how this type of behavior did not honor George Floyd, nor was it in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) They referenced how hard MLK fought with a purpose to help shape our nation for the better and reminisced of all the great things he had done in and for the city of Atlanta.
While my home isn’t actually in the city limits of Atlanta, I don’t live far away and am proud to call Atlanta my home. The places being destroyed on TV are familiar to me, places I would go to often with friends before COVID-19. And I hated seeing them destroyed.
Almost on queue many started to publically criticize the protests and, unfortunately, the prominent debate shifted from addressing the injustice that prompted the protests in the first place to condemnation of the protests as nefarious and criminal. And I lamented at how many were more passionate about the means rather than the ends. The violence, it seems, made things too much to handle for some.
Have people forgotten how Colin Kaepernick was vilified for protesting while remaining silent and nonviolent? People said him taking a knee during the anthem disgraced war veterans. But in truth, he opposed the same senseless police brutality and unjust treatment experienced by people of color being protested today. And he did it silently and nonviolently, yet his protest was also too much for many to handle.
Is there a universally accepted way to protest against something as paramount as injustice? Do opponents to the protests, then and now, truly understand what is being protested?
Truthfully, there are plenty of examples of peaceful protests and protesters berating those who try to incite violence. And there are many instances of police allowing, and even helping, protesters assemble to voice their grievances. But the narrative of violent protests is the one permeating our news headlines, and it’s the one getting everyone’s attention and outrage.
I think it’s funny how we forget our nation’s history. Didn’t violent riots like the Boston Tea Party pave the way for our independence? Wouldn’t that certainly be considered an act of domestic terrorism by today’s standards? Yet our textbooks sensationalize the act of defiance as an appropriate act of aggression as we violently fought against British oppression.
So why are people protesting and rioting?
For starters, they’re not just protesting against the recent travesties being widely reported in the news. Yes, it is for those. But it is also for all the other incidents that go overlooked by the news. It’s for all the complaints made against unjust law enforcement that go unnoticed until an unarmed black man dies in the street. It’s for the lack of indictments and for all the plea deals and acquittals offered by local district attorneys and prosecutors who are sworn to administer equal justice for all as police continue to kill unarmed black men disproportionately. It’s not just for George Floyd in Minneapolis. It’s for Eric Garner and Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo in New York. It’s for Mike Brown in Ferguson. It’s for Trayvon Martin in Sanford. It’s for Oscar Grant in Oakland. It’s for Emmett Till in Money. It’s for Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor, Kendra James, and so many others we have heard of. And shamefully, it’s for all those we will never hear of. It’s for the entire system of injustice that has been in operation for decades.
But it’s not just a protest against deaths at the hands of law enforcement. It’s against other forms of ignorance that subtly plagues society and perpetuates hate. It would be obvious to most that George Floyd was assassinated by police in broad daylight while crying out for his mother and saying he couldn’t breathe, yet a mayor in Mississippi tweeted that if you can say you cant breathe then you can breathe.
If you want to know why people are protesting, that’s why.
As horrifying as that mayor’s comments are, they’re not uncommon. Further proving racism has not been eradicated. It is insidious and has taken on many new forms over the years. And unless more people are vigilante and actively looking for it and opposing it, it will covertly go untested and the system will continue. And if the system continues, riots will continue.
For all these reasons I can say that, while I don’t condone violence, I understand. And I think back to Mayor Bottoms and Killer Mike and their comments about MLK not being honored by this type of behavior. And they’re absolutely right. The scenes playing out now aren’t ones that celebrate him or bring glory to his name. But I wonder what he would say. And I remember what he did say…
“A riot is the language of the unheard.”
MLK has always been a hero of mine and is truly one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever heard of. His resolve and lifetime commitment to pursuing justice and civil rights in the face of such alarming and disheartening realities has always fascinated me.
And personally, I think that quote above is profound on its own. But I realize it’s insufficient in representing MLK as a whole. There’s nothing wrong with reciting a single MLK quote. After all, there are so many great ones to choose from. But we must be careful not to let those single quotes be our only exposure to his teachings if we want to thoroughly understand his ideas, even when it comes to riots. It can limit our ability to see the entire forest because so much attention is given to a single tree.
It’s like trying to reduce all the behaviors, methods, experiences, and teachings of Jesus down to one or two scripture verses. If you’re a Christian perhaps you’ll agree that doing so is rarely sufficient. I believe the same can be said for MLK. To be very clear, I’m not implying Jesus and MLK are equal. MLK was shamefully executed like Jesus, but MLK was not the Son of God. Nor did he come to die and be raised again to erase the sin of the world. That is very clear. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t overlapping similarities. Both were viewed as threats by the government. Both confessed radical new ways of thinking. Both called for people and their nation to act and behave differently. And both preached messages of nonviolence.
It’s that last idea, MLK’s advocacy for nonviolence, that I’ve been thinking about. It’s undeniable that MLK vocally supported nonviolence. That is very well documented. Which means, once again, there is no arguing with Mayor Bottoms and Killer Mike. But I can’t help but wonder if some people think his advocacy for nonviolence actually meant he promoted peaceful protests.
Actually, many didn’t consider his protests to be peaceful. No, he didn’t encourage fighting or destroying property with his methods. But that certainly doesn’t mean he was docile or passive. He was a self-proclaimed supporter of civil disobedience as a means to generate change and he endorsed breaking what he considered unjust laws. He was arrested more than 20 times, and he was considered a major national threat by the FBI.
That might sound like a scandalous description, but that’s just the thing. MLK was brilliantly skilled in the arts of defiant and direct action. He knew how to make things difficult for the ones upholding the racist system in order to bring about change.
But not all of these recent protests have been nonviolent. Some have actually been destructive, including the ones here in Atlanta. I won’t deny that. Perhaps mob mentality is a troublesome byproduct of the emotionally charged gatherings. It also certainly doesn’t help when inflammatory tweets are made by powerful individuals and law enforcement is attacking protesters unprovoked. But those are only observations and not meant to justify.
I just hope more people can stay focused on the reasoning behind the recent protests and not the destructive nature of some of them. My heart breaks at the thought of conversations about Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others taking a back seat to a debate over how protesters are expected to behave.
While wondering what MLK would say, I decided to take a look at his “Where do we go from here?” speech made on August 16, 1967 to the SCLC. He opened the first half of the speech by happily sharing about recent progress, specifically with Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, Cleveland, and Atlanta. But even with all the improvements, he lamented at the current situation and the long road that still lied ahead.
Now, in order to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus, half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we turn to the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share: There are twice as many unemployed; the rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites;
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In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One-twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, seventy-five percent hold menial jobs. This is where we are.
The first thing that comes to mind is that this speech was made 3 years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act and 2 years after the passing of the Voting Rights Act. Yet these were still the unequal realities haunting the black community. The struggle was far from over. And in addition to the economic plight, MLK said true equality could never be attained unless black people actually felt equal. Dignity and self-worth was not something that could be restored simply through legislation. It would take time. Some contend many black Americans today are still in search of it. But what about his thoughts on violent protests?
Now, let me rush on to say we must reaffirm our commitment to nonviolence. And I want to stress this. The futility of violence in the struggle for racial justice has been tragically etched in all the recent Negro riots. … There is something painfully sad about a riot.
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Occasionally, Negroes contend that the 1965 Watts riot and the other riots in various cities represented effective civil rights action. But those who express this view always end up with stumbling words when asked what concrete gains have been won as a result. … Nowhere have the riots won any concrete improvement such as have the organized protest demonstrations.
And when one tries to pin down advocates of violence as to what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly illogical. Sometimes they talk of overthrowing racist state and local governments and they talk about guerrilla warfare. They fail to see that no internal revolution has ever succeeded in overthrowing a government by violence…
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This is no time for romantic illusions and empty philosophical debates about freedom. This is a time for action. What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program that will bring the Negro into the mainstream of American life as quickly as possible. So far, this has only been offered by the nonviolent movement. Without recognizing this we will end up with solutions that don’t solve, answers that don’t answer, and explanations that don’t explain. And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence. And I am still convinced, and I’m still convinced that it is the most potent weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for justice in this country.
He described at great length how the chances of overthrowing a racist government were zero. They weren’t slim. They were zero. Especially in the United States where the black population did not have overwhelming sympathy from the white population. And he is abundantly clear that protesting nonviolently was the best option for success.
I certainly agree with that. Executing a nonviolent protest will certainly get more positive results, especially when the police and opposing force respond with brutality and violence. Picture the dramatic imagery of the Freedom Riders or dogs biting black protesters or fire hoses unleashed on little black children. If someone can remain resolute and not fight back in the face of such fierce hostility, observers might be likely to see the unjust treatment and interject.
But even though he felt nonviolence was the way to go, he didn’t overlook riots and thought they were the language of the unheard. Consider what he said during an interview one month after the “Where do we go from here?” speech on September 27, 1966.
I will never change in my basic idea that non-violence is the most potent weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for freedom and justice. I think for the Negro to turn to violence would be both impractical and immoral. … The vast majority of Negroes still feel that the best way to deal with the dilemma that we face in this country is through non-violent resistance, … I think that we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. … The mood of the Negro community now is one of urgency, one of saying that we aren’t going to wait. That we’ve got to have our freedom. We’ve waited too long. So that I would say that every summer we’re going to have this kind of vigorous protest. My hope is that it will be non-violent.
He insisted that black people are still in urgent need of justice. And he was abundantly clear in his belief that violence is both impractical and immoral, and that nonviolence is the most effective weapon to produce change. But it’s interesting that he also acknowledged the existence of riots and said they were signs of a much deeper problem that people should pay attention to. And he hinted at the possibility that the riots would continue.
He had spoken a few weeks prior addressing behavioral science on September 1, 1967, and he offered some additional thoughts on riots.
Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. … They are mainly intended to shock the white community.
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The policymakers of the white society have caused the darkness; they create discrimination; they structured slums; and they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also demand that the white man abide by law in the ghettos. Day-in and day-out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; and he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions for civic services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them but do not make them any more than a prisoner makes a prison. Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society.
Violent riots are deplorable, he says. That’s a strong word. Intolerable. Disgraceful. Wretched. But as deplorable as he found them to be, he said they are to be acknowledged and understood. And he offered an explanation, not a justification, for them. Because of the deplorable conditions and treatment suffered by the black community. Even with all the progress made over recent years, the struggle was as relevant as ever. Which meant, as much as he hated them, it was probably reasonable to assume riots weren’t ending anytime soon.
Was there anything that could be learned from them? He offered incite in one of his more famous and final speeches, “The Other America”, given on March 14, 1968, just weeks before his assassination.
The first thing I would like to mention is that there must be a recognition on the part of everybody in this nation that America is still a racist country. Now however unpleasant that sounds, it is the truth. And we will never solve the problem of racism until there is a recognition of the fact that racism still stands at the center of so much of our nation and we must see racism for what it is.
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And we’ve got to see that this still exists in American society. And until it is removed, there will be people walking the streets of live and living in their humble dwellings feeling that they are nobody, feeling that they have no dignity and feeling that they are not respected. The first thing that must be on the agenda of our nation is to get rid of racism.
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And I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results. But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.
Once again he makes it clear that nonviolent disobedience is the ideal way to bring about the social justice that is required. But he also repeated his ideas on riots as the language of those who aren’t being heard. And he wouldn’t allow himself to couldn’t condemn riots without at the same time condemning the intolerable conditions that produced them.
So if you’re someone who was previously inclined to disregard the protests and the underlying message, I hope you’ll reconsider. Please don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. If we want them to end, we must examine the tragedies that compelled people to riot in the first place.
While they don’t have much to say about protests, I’d be remiss not to mention that anyone who has never read his Letter from a Birmingham Jail or the entire I Have a Dream speech should do so. It’s a shame they’re not required reading in school, if they’re not by now. They’re rich with raw emotions and vivid depictions of the inequality, living conditions, and life experiences of black people.
In his letter from jail he opposed those who deplored demonstrations and didn’t pay attention to the conditions that produced them… Reminded that the purpose of direct action is to produce negotiations… Described how freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor and must be demanded… Encouraged breaking unjust laws… Voiced concerns at the white moderates who silently produced more of an obstacle to justice than the KKK… Expressed disappointment with the white church and leadership…
And in his I have a dream speech he opens with a powerful metaphor about trying to cash an overdrawn check from the bank of justice… Forewarned that black people cannot win the battle alone and need white people to join the fight… Stressed that now is the time and urgency must prevail over gradualism… Admitted that satisfaction can’t be realized while police brutality persists…
It’s chilling how relevant the speeches are still in 2020 even though they were written in 1963. I suppose that’s a testament to how little things have changed since then and how far we still have to go.
Do we have a modern day equivalent to MLK? I don’t think so but I sure wish there was. Perhaps if we did people wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss rioting, especially if someone offered a nonviolent alternative. But without someone to offer such an alternative, I fear people will just continue to protest the only way they know how. Because they have to have some way to unleash their frustrations. Their anger. Their fear. And then I remember that 50 years ago the police had batons and fire hoses to maintain order while now they are outfitted in military gear. The mere sight is enough to instill fear in some and gives the impression of war. When an image like that comes into contact with fearful people who have been mistreated, sometimes that manifests itself in the form of a riot. Which I don’t condone. But I understand.
If only there was someone today who promoted nonviolent protests as the more successful method… If only there was someone who could harness the collective anguish and suffering in a way that got positive attention… If only there was someone who was capable of generating more expedient change…
What if that was the church?
Not only do I think we, as the church, have the resources and influence to advocate for justice in a way that can produce change, I believe we have the obligation. To show our country and the world that everyone is to be loved and treated equally under the banner of Jesus.
What if the church chose to play that role?
If only…