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Civil rights movement while it is happening: Oh shucks, this is very impolite and rude! Can’t they get their message across in a less impolite and disturbing ma

Civil rights movement while it is happening: Oh shucks, this is very impolite and rude! Can’t they get their message across in a less impolite and disturbing manner? Civil rights fifty years after the fact: Oh what heroes those people were. Of course they only wanted commonsensical things and surely I would have supported them if I were around back then.

s1artibartfast 5y ago
There are a lot of protest, the vast majority of which are peaceful. That said, I do not think that MLK would condone the burning of churches, ransacking of businesses, and destruction of police stations as a means of protest. There have always been a destructive minority associated with the civil rights movements. This does not delegitimize the movement, but neither does it legitimize the destruction. As MLK often points out, these actions are counterproductive and polarizing.
- akomtu 5y ago
  I'm afraid it does delegitimize the movement. If someone commits crimes on behalf of BLM, it's BLM's job to publicly denounce those individuals and recite the main BLM values (what are they, btw?). Not doing that gives an impression that BLM is either a disorganized mob or, worse, that it quietly supports those criminals.
  - s1artibartfast 5y ago
    I largely agree but wouldn't be so definitive, given the diffuse nature of the civil rights movement. I think condoning or making excuses for lawlessness deligitimzes the speaker, and anyone who stands behind the statements. That said there are many within these movements that do not condone lawlessness
- nopenopenopeno 5y ago
  There is no need to speculate: > King told reporters that the Watts riots were “the beginning of a stirring of those people in our society who have been by passed by the progress of the past decade” (King, 20 August 1965). Struggles in the North, King believed, were really about “dignity and work,” rather than rights, which had been the main goal of black activism in the South (King, 20 August 1965). During his discussions with local people, King met black residents who argued for armed insurrection, and others who claimed that “the only way we can ever get anybody to listen to us is to start a riot” (King, 19 August 1965). https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebellion-los-angeles https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebell...

s1artibartfast 5y ago

There are a lot of protest, the vast majority of which are peaceful. That said, I do not think that MLK would condone the burning of churches, ransacking of businesses, and destruction of police stations as a means of protest. There have always been a destructive minority associated with the civil rights movements. This does not delegitimize the movement, but neither does it legitimize the destruction. As MLK often points out, these actions are counterproductive and polarizing.

akomtu 5y ago
I'm afraid it does delegitimize the movement. If someone commits crimes on behalf of BLM, it's BLM's job to publicly denounce those individuals and recite the main BLM values (what are they, btw?). Not doing that gives an impression that BLM is either a disorganized mob or, worse, that it quietly supports those criminals.
- s1artibartfast 5y ago
  I largely agree but wouldn't be so definitive, given the diffuse nature of the civil rights movement. I think condoning or making excuses for lawlessness deligitimzes the speaker, and anyone who stands behind the statements. That said there are many within these movements that do not condone lawlessness
nopenopenopeno 5y ago
There is no need to speculate: > King told reporters that the Watts riots were “the beginning of a stirring of those people in our society who have been by passed by the progress of the past decade” (King, 20 August 1965). Struggles in the North, King believed, were really about “dignity and work,” rather than rights, which had been the main goal of black activism in the South (King, 20 August 1965). During his discussions with local people, King met black residents who argued for armed insurrection, and others who claimed that “the only way we can ever get anybody to listen to us is to start a riot” (King, 19 August 1965). https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebellion-los-angeles https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebell...