“…In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force…” -from the address to civil rights marchers by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963.
From Richard Palzer:
ReplyDeleteThe degeneration of protesters into violence is indeed a disgrace because it plays into the hands of those who by discrimination and stereotyping are the very ones guilty and deserving of protest. Violence feeds the beast.of racism: "See, this is what these people are really like!" Add in the KKK-types who infiltrate to foment the destruction, vandalism, and looting, relishing the opportunity to further stoke racial divisiveness, and we have to confront once again the anger and distrust of a racial divide.
I do question--worry, actually--what adhering to MLK's admonition of peaceful protest, not lowering to the level of those being protested, would accomplish, whether it would be regarded, as I heard in one protester's comment today, as not having an impact. But almost universal condemnation of this videoed brutality is the positive all need to take away--it's not only the black community in protest. My fear is that violence as protest will only intensify the racial divide.
-Richard