Will the silence of Freddie Gray and his supporter’s future become powerful over time, or will their existence be marked as mere history; buried in a white-majority country’s lack of interest, understanding, and prejudice?
We can take each part of this question to task. Making the comparison of Baltimore’s activists to the labor movement anarchists of 1886 may seem too loose for some. Hell, you can probably read 3 in 5 privileged, white facebookers posting an Martin Luther King Jr. quote to disprove anything I’d like to say. I mean, weren’t the 1960s successful because the refrain from riots? Well, besides these:
Birmingham Riot of 1963 May 11, 1963
Rochester 1964 race riot 24–26 July 1964
Harlem Riot of 1964 16-22 July 1964, New York City
Philadelphia 1964 race riot 28–30 August 1964
Watts Riots 11 August 1965, Los Angeles, California
Hough Riots 18 July 1966, Cleveland, Ohio
1967 Newark riots 12 July 1967, Newark, New Jersey
1967 Plainfield riots 14 July 1967, Plainfield, New Jersey
12th Street riot 23 July 1967, Detroit, Michigan, USA
1968 Chicago, Illinois riots
1968 Washington, D.C. riots 4 April 1968, Washington D.C.
Baltimore riot of 1968 4 April 1968, Baltimore, Maryland
Now, recognize that first riot that brought on the wave of others throughout the 1960s, The Birmingham Riot of1963. This was a turning point for the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Malcolm X addressed this at a Baptist Church in Detroit Michigan, stating:
By the way, right at that time Birmingham had exploded, and the Negroes in Birmingham —— remember, they also exploded. They began to stab the crackers in the back and bust them up ’side their head —— yes, they did. That’s when Kennedy sent in the troops, down in Birmingham. So, and right after that, Kennedy got on the television and said “this is a moral issue.”
Because it took the fire of the Black community, the demanding of recognition of their struggle, and the injury of members of the white population, for White leaders to feel obligated to respond. Sure, images of Black men being torn by police dogs during peaceful protests was emotional, but it just wasn’t enough. The riots brought action. Just as they did in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 that sparked the liftoff of the LGBT movement.
And who are my privileged, white peers fooling when they use Martin Luther King Jr.to prove their points? MLK was a derisive, radical figure in American politics and the polls of the time showed it:
Thugs, savages, animals… whichever non-N-word of the hour you prefer, the meaning is the same. Black people can’t be emotionally political. Black people are not rational beings; Black people are unworthy of understanding, and should be treated with contempt until they are back in their place. The White heroes of our police force are not to be challenged by the uncivilized. And just as soon as we can convince the riots to subside, we can begin to ignore the calls for change once again.
So, fellow privileged White people, please take a vow with me:
I shall not refer to Black protesters as subhuman
I shall not dictate how the Black community expresses grief and dissatisfaction
I shall not assume I understand Black experience, but will attempt to understand
I shall not manipulate historical Black leaders to push an agenda on what should be discourse within the Black community
I shall support the advancement of Black communities without feeling obligated to provide the solutions
Whether its White saviors coming in to show Black people how they will overcome, or the simple-minded telling them they've already made it and need to just try harder, we really need to stop acting like we have the answers. But further than that, we need to stop acting like riots don’t or haven’t worked.
If the Ferguson riots hadn't happened, would the FBI Director, James Comey, had spoken out against police bias and called for a national database of police shooting events? How about the increased interest in body cameras for officers? The database alone could lead to a huge surge in unbiased research and monitoring of police departments and police tactics. How long would we have gone simply trusting our law enforcement, rather than insisting they prove their worthiness after each new, untimely death of a US citizen?
It appears our nation’s response to the riots is not only ahistorical, but filled with outsider views that don’t even attempt to grasp the racial experience of urban areas like Baltimore. The child-like dichotomy of violence=bad, nonviolence=good is being repeated ad nauseum as if it was some sort of intellectual foundation. The thought that the Millennial generation will be more knowledgeable and understanding of a racialized America is falling by the day, and its time to start calling out my peers for their simplistic, prejudiced response to inevitable and emotional outbursts across the nation. The Baltimore Riots of 2015 will only work if we believe in them.