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RSN: Fightin' in the Streets
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=54565"><span class="small">Stephen Eric Bronner, Reader Supported News</span></a>   
Tuesday, 02 June 2020 13:20

Bronner writes: "Violence is not a symbol, but a reality: people get hurt, businesses get destroyed, kids get arrested, and catharsis is always momentary. Always it is the most vulnerable - people of color - who get hurt, watch their businesses burn, get arrested, and then have their catharsis with tears in their eyes."

Protester stands on a burning police vehicle during a protest over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, CA, on May 30th, 2020. (photo: Ringo H W Chiu/AP/Shutterstock)
Protester stands on a burning police vehicle during a protest over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, CA, on May 30th, 2020. (photo: Ringo H W Chiu/AP/Shutterstock)


Fightin' in the Streets

By Stephen Eric Bronner, Reader Supported News

02 June 20

 

iolence is not a symbol, but a reality: people get hurt, businesses get destroyed, kids get arrested, and catharsis is always momentary. Always it is the most vulnerable — people of color — who get hurt, watch their businesses burn, get arrested, and then have their catharsis with tears in their eyes. I was told of some Twitter message describing a woman trying to restrain a few young white guys from inciting violence outside Baltimore Hall. She yelled at them that they were putting African-Americans at risk and, supposedly, the white guy responded: “They’re going to kill you anyway!” 

I’m sure that there are many types in “Antifa” (anti-fascists), but I never met a member or anyone in the anarchist “Black Bloc” who wasn’t white and (usually) privileged. Nor have I ever met one who knew that the Antifa slogan, “smash the fascist where he stands,” derives from the German Communist Party in 1929. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that it had the desired impact. It is the same regarding another old, failed ultra-left slogan, “the worse the better.” Even the most cursory look at history suggests that the worse doesn’t beget the better, it only begets what is even worse.

A significant minority among the black protestors participated in the rioting and looting, just as in the riots of 1967, and they share responsibility for what happened to any number of black neighborhoods. That white nationalists acted as provocateurs doesn’t change matters; they are not worth talking about. It is different with other groups, though. Legitimate rage is no excuse for illegitimate violence, especially since “law and order” bigots will use it to confirm their worst prejudices. Spontaneous violence is not an expression of power, but of weakness, hopelessness, and frustration with the  procedures for resolving grievances. Violence makes it easier for protestors to define themselves by the white-racist tactics that the black community has courageously opposed. That our wannabe fascist president wishes to label a completely decentralized Antifa as a “professional terrorist organization” should not blind progressives to their irresponsible tactics and sectarian politics. Their violence will undoubtedly serve as a pretext for Trump to introduce more sweeping programs to constrict civil liberties, voting rights, and welfare programs. Perhaps he will also use his call for law and order as the precedent for an authoritarian response to an electoral loss in November of 2020. 

Indiscriminate rioting is “red meat” not only for his base but also for those “secret racists” who won’t publicly admit to their choices in the voting booth. “Our” president ignores reality: Antifa and the Black Bloc, the looters and the petty thieves, speak only for themselves. The vast majority of those racially diverse young protestors are neither terrorists nor revolutionaries. They seek justice for their brothers and sisters. Witnessing the horrifying murder of George Floyd online, they remember other murders of other blacks by other cops, and they are infuriated by a systemically racist police apparatus and a government whose multi-trillion-dollar response to the coronavirus never dripped down to the working class and the poor. The old adage remains as true as ever that “when America catches a cold, the black community catches pneumonia.”

Violence is tempting under these circumstances, and only a fool would argue that people of color should trust or preoccupy themselves with the sensibilities of white liberals and moderates. But those who surrender to the temptation confuse the momentary rush with political power, social media sites with real organization, and ugly graffiti with an authentic agenda. Violence is sometimes justified — but only very rarely, and only as a last resort, which this is not. If employed, moreover, it must serve an explicit communal end rather than that of quasi-criminal individuals. Violence is never a cause for celebration. One reaps what one sows: the greater the violence, the greater the unfocused rage, the greater the probability that rebellion will generate counter-revolt. 

I approach all this as an outsider — I can’t be anything else. But I know that violence should always be mourned as a tragic deviation from the practices of a righteous cause; it doesn’t contribute to  the solidarity of a real movement, especially one concerned with civil rights and the rule of law. Too often, in fact, brash talk about violence is used as an excuse to avoid engaging in real political activism such as that being developed by Reverend William Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign and a host of other organizations. Working with them, however, is not as dramatic as throwing a Molotov cocktail; real change requires discipline and long-term commitment. 

A pressing need exists for positive proposals, whether speculative or not, which can improve the transparency and accountability of law enforcement agencies. Suggestions might include demanding new and more thorough audits, eliminating their insular self-policing, seeking input from the most decorated cops on the ground, especially women, and — yes! — raising their wages and benefits to attract better-grade applicants. Other proposals might substitute national for local civilian review boards and call for the creation of a new cabinet post concerned specifically with police-community relations. Such proposals are worth considering, and that is true of many others. What I have written should be taken in the spirit of constructive criticism and solidarity with the exploited and the insulted. Precisely at a moment when our lying, megalomaniacal commander ‘n’ chief is aligning himself with the most retrograde forces of “law and order,” all protestors today must, just as did Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela in their time, link the means they use to the ends that they wish to realize: justice, equality, and peace.



Stephen Eric Bronner is Board of Governors Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University and Co-Director of the International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogue. Author of more than twenty works, his latest is The Sovereign (Routledge)

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 June 2020 08:49