I keep seeing this on social media: “a riot is the language of the unheard.” People are taking that quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “The Other America” speech and using it to justify what has been going on over the past week. They are using it to suggest that Martin Luther King Jr. would have sanctioned these riots. These are probably the same people who say that he would have been a republican if he were alive today. Suggesting he would have approved of riots is to ignore everything he stood for in his life and call him a hypocrite. I suggest you watch that speech on YouTube. You can read a transcript of it but he was a brilliant orator, so it is worth the watch. But when I started seeing this on social media, I read the transcript, then I watched the speech to see if his delivery gave me any additional insight in to what he was trying to convey. It did not, but this is an excerpt from the section where he talks about 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.”
He was very clearly against riots and knew that they did nothing to advance the rioter’s agenda. He was right. The anger that people felt over the killing of George Floyd was palpable and felt up and down the political spectrum. You remember him right? He was killed by a police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. George Floyd deserves justice. Whatever the autopsy showed about his underlying health issues is irrelevant. Everyone was outraged by his death. People from all walks of life would have been honored to take part in and support peaceful protests. Leftists and Conservatives alike condemned the actions of the officer that killed Floyd. For the first time in a long time everyone was on the same page.
The four officers involved were fired and have now all been arrested. The officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck has been charged with second degree murder and the other three have been charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder. From the beginning, the law enforcement apparatus went all in on punishing those responsible. The wheels of justice were turning. Protesting how long it took for the arrests to happen was understandable. Protesting the original charge of third degree murder, while premature was understandable. Marches, candlelight vigils, rallies and press conferences are all peaceful forms of protest that everyone would have supported. However, when the violence erupted, when the fires were set, when the businesses were destroyed, when the store owners were beaten, when the rioting started, they lost the moral high ground.
Dr. King spoke about the conditions that exist, that must be condemned. During the civil rights movement and when he made this speech, the racism and the economic conditions under which many black people lived were miserable. Fifty-plus years ago, systemic racism was actually a thing. The decks were stacked against black folks. The government incentivized having children out of wedlock, which led to generations of black children raised in fatherless households. Back then it was much more difficult to or secure a loan for a business venture. Getting hassled by the police simply for being black was a common occurrence. Aside from the issue of children being raised without fathers present, those conditions do not exist today. Affirmative action makes it easier for black people to get in to school or get certain jobs. There are loan programs specifically for minorities. Society has bent over backwards to try to atone for the sin of racism. Because of those efforts, there is no systemic, endemic, or institutionalized racism among the police, or any other public institution.
I have seen the term Blue Klux Klan used against the police on social media. I have heard people assert that they teach the police in the academy to target black people. These are emotional expressions that have zero basis in fact. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that there were 53.5 million civilian interactions with the police in 2015, which is the last year for which the BJS has these official numbers. Of those 53.5 million contacts, 987 resulted in the police fatally shooting a suspect. Of those 987, 259 were black and of those 259, 38 were unarmed. Other studies show that those numbers have remained fairly consistent from 2015 to the present. Keep in mind that this was during the Obama administration when police were being targeted and hunted themselves because of the anti-police sentiment fostered during that time. The number of police officers injured and killed during these riots indicates that the anti police sentiment is rising, yet again. Nevertheless, black people comprise about 13% of the population of the United States, which is approximately 44 million people. If there truly is an effort afoot by the police to hunt down and kill black men, wouldn’t there be more than 259 black people killed by police? Wouldn’t you expect more than 38 of them to be unarmed? Those numbers however are statistically irrelevant.
There is a whole host of issues plaguing the black community, but those are topics for another time. The issue at the forefront of everyone’s mind right now is the rioting and civil unrest happening across the country. What is the root cause and how do we fix it? The media is invested in having us believe that racism is the primary cause of these riots, followed very closely by the killing of George Floyd at the knee of a racist cop. Does racism exist? Of course it does. Are there racist cops? Of course there are. Was the cop who killed Floyd a racist? We don’t know yet. But these riots weren’t sparked by racism or the killing of George Floyd. These riots were caused by opportunistic thugs who saw a chance to get something for nothing while taking out their frustrations on innocent people who did nothing to George Floyd. Assuming these criminals even know who he was.
For a brief moment, the entire country was united. Black Lives Matter, Antifa, RAM, and the democrats could not allow that unity to take hold. What they saw was an opportunity to sow even more discord in an already deeply divided country. We can fix it, but we have to sift through the noise and not allow the leftist media to control the narrative any longer. We have to push back on BLM, Antifa, RAM, the media, and the rest of the anarchists and tell him it ends now. We will not allow their juvenile temper tantrum to destroy the greatest country in the history of civilization because of their distorted, childlike perception that they have been wronged. As the adults in the room, we need to spank them and say enough is enough. If Dr. King were alive, I am certain he would agree.