"Nonviolence as Compliance"

"The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray's death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray's death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.")...

When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is "correct" or "wise," any more than a forest fire can be "correct" or "wise." Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the rioters themselves."
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/

I see this impulsive thing of 'I don't understand why people are rioting and damaging property,' and instead of turning to 'I must not know something; there must be some gap in my experience and knowledge that prevents me from understanding this' the response is 'there must be something wrong with them - why don't they understand that violence is wrong, as much as I do?'.

And we aren't trained to do that with people who are in a social minority; we are trained to understand their motives as more base and short-sighted and uninformed. Members of social minorities are trained to understand their own motives as base and short-sighted and uninformed. We are trained to expect that no one else will understand; we see that, too often, no one else will try.

There is this frustrating and absurd thing where, during a discussion of whether or not some behavior would be racist, a white person will say "Well, I don't see anything offensive about that" - in a tone that implies that this provides an answer to the question, that we can now be satisfied and end the conversation. And I shouldn't have to articulate this but, despite their voices having the most weight, white people have the least perspective on the experience of racism and really need to place themselves in a role of listening and learning.

And this might be a passive aggressive response to one post I saw on Facebook, where a white person was trying to use an out-of-context MLK quote to shame black rioters. Seriously, look at yourself.