I think no such thing, Moot. Lynching is not justifiable. Looting is not justifiable. Taking the law into your own hands to satisfy your sense of grievance is never justifiable.
You said if property damage was justifiable then so is lynching. No doubt you'd be a lot more upset if it was blacks doing the lynching instead of whites.
First, if it is your argument that MLK fought and died for nothing and accomplished nothing, I have no evidence of that. While disparities exist, they are nothing compared to what they were half a century ago. And no matter the perception, no one gets to engage in lawlessness and get away with it.
My argument was in response to your claim that todays blacks weren't slaves...well, neither was MLK. But Blacks have been living under a systemic oppressive system since reconstruction and it has effected blacks through generations. To say otherwise is pure head in the sand ignorance and a convenient way of silencing blacks and denying them their rights and their history.
That is true. But that does not justify destroying other people's property who had nothing to do with that process.
But the police did have something to do with that process and the anger has largely been directed at them and the system. IE: burned out police cars, police stations and court houses.
I didn't say you had to agree with the vandalism and rioting....I just said you (whites) should at least try to understand why it happens. If you don't...then why would expect anything less than rioting, looting and vandalism when that is the only thing that gets your attention?
MLK didn't condone violence...but he understood it.
"...So these conditions, existence of widespread poverty, slums, and of tragic conniptions in schools and other areas of life, all of these things have brought about a great deal of despair, and a great deal of desperation. A great deal of disappointment and even bitterness in the Negro communities. And today all of our cities confront huge problems. All of our cities are potentially powder kegs as a result of the continued existence of these conditions. Many in moments of anger, many in moments of deep bitterness engage in riots.
Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way.
But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention...."
Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- The Other America
