KINGDOM BUILDERS: BLACK POLITICAL THOUGHT by Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.
Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social
phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood.
Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The
rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of
institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a
distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature
serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take
hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse.
Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of
taking.
But most of all, alienated from society and knowing that
this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing
property rights. There are thus elements of emotional catharsis in the violent
act. This may explain why most cities in which riots have occurred have not had
a repetition, even though the causative conditions remain. It is also
noteworthy that the amount of physical harm done to white people other than
police is infinitesimal and in Detroit WHITES AND BLACKS LOOTED IN UNITY.
A profound judgment of today’s riots was expressed by Victor
Hugo a century ago. He said, ‘If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be
committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the
darkness.’
(***PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE WORDS BELOW) :
The policymakers of the white society have caused the
darkness; they create discrimination; they structured slums; and they
perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and
deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes.
They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes
to abide by the law, let us also demand that the white man abide by law in the
ghettos. Day-in and day-out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their
meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his
police make a mockery of law; and he violates laws on equal employment and
education and the provisions for civic services.
The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white
society; Negroes live in them but do not make them any more than a prisoner
makes a prison. Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white
man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the
law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white
man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and
more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great
problems that we face in our society. (bobbeethehater.blogspot.com)
