It's Only a Riot When We Do It, Right?

After the recent events in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore, we are seeing the most monumental social movement of our time. Since the death of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, the protest have become stronger and bigger, from state to state throughout the nation. Just like the civil rights movements, the Black community is standing up for their rights and for equality.

Social movements are collective, contentious political action, usually based on shared set of claims, used to challenge powerful institutions. Currently, we are seeing political institutions being challenged by a majority of the Black community to fight for equality and against police brutality. We have seen over the past year the most brutal and unethical killings of Black men under police custody. The killing of Trayvon Martin was the first to spark the protest, after he was shot by George Zimmerman, after explicitly being told not to attack Martin. Although Zimmerman was and is not a police offer, or anything of that sort, it sparked a fire due to the nature of the act and the fact that Zimmerman was not charged. Zimmerman, who has an extensive criminal record, is one of the many white men who claim to “fear for their lives” and end up killing innocent Black men. Following his death came to death of Michael Brown who was murdered in the hands of the police. Brown’s death caused even more controversy because of the lack of government attention to the brutal shooting, the lack of medical attention, and the lies that the Ferguson Police Department contributed to save officer Daren Wilson, who killed Brown. The list goes on, from the killing of 12 year old Tamir Rice to the killing of Eric Garner under an illegal choke-hold.

Institutional racism has allowed for police officers to arrest, hurt, and eventually kill minorities, especially Black men, at much higher rates than whites, even though crime rates are almost equal. Due to hundreds of years of inequality and institutional racism, the rage and anger has grown and caused for this social movement. Like many social movements, they start as “riots”, or at least were documented as such. The Civil Rights movement, LGBTQIA Pride, and now against police brutality, are all being treated as riots, instead of protest and social movements. Although the protest are organized, peaceful, and seeking change, the very few who chose to be violent are the ones painting the image in the media. But, no one is taking into account the reason for the anger, nor is the media taking into account the ones who have been violent first and caused reactions. It is no surprise that in a “post-racial” society, the documentation of these so-called riots are being used as targets against the Black community but when it’s anyone else, its just people getting rowdy(x).  

                People love to say that violence is never the answer, but no one says that when a police officer kills a 12 year old boy playing in the park. Social movements cannot function without resources, but can they function without violence too? That’s a personal opinion, and meant for another discussion, but that’s something people really need to think about it. Every movement has been documented to be violent. No one is talking about the other side that’s screaming racial slurs to the peaceful protests, or the ones who lynched protesters during the civil rights movement, or the people who attacked the LGBTQIA protesters(x). But, it’s a riot because we are minorities. Maybe in 50 years, our history books will talk about the “peaceful protest that created change” and we’ll be quoting Angela Davis, and how they all advocated for peace. Maybe in 50 years, our history books will forget about the deaths of Black men at the hands of police and only remember the good the police did. Or maybe even tell the truth about our “post-racial” society and the “new racism”. But for now, let us remember that we are writing history and this is our social movement. If we take control of the now, we can write our own history books and expose the truth. It’s not a riot, it’s a protest.