Unlike the news and media, I won’t use this post to preach ad nauseam the difference between a riot and a protest. I think we all know the difference and if we don’t know the difference by now, we need to pull our heads up out of the sand. I have been keenly watching the split-screen action on tv switching back and forth between the riots and the protests. Peaceful protests usually happen in the daytime and are an offshoot of Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of using non-violent means to reform the system and or achieve justice. Unruly riots usually happen when dark falls and are an offshoot of Malcolm X’s philosophy of using violent means to reform the system and or achieve justice. Of course, what makes the protests occurring today different from the protests of the past are the racial diversity that is on display. The crowds makeup is mostly that of young adults, college-aged students, and teenagers of all ethnicities.
The one thing I am hearing over and over is that the peaceful protesters just want to talk. They want guidance from the older generations on how to protest and they want policemen to befriend them, not to block them. After a couple of days of protesting in Atlanta, the next generation said the third day was what made the difference. What was the difference? It came down to one cop, a young white cop who met the protesters at the blockade formed by police. This one cop looked at the protestors and asked them, “What do you want?” The protesters said, “We want to walk.” The cop said, “I’ll walk with you. Let’s go.” And off they went, with the cop leading the pack and talking to protesters all along the way. The protesters claim that rather their mayor or their city’s celebrities yelling at them, they just wanted someone to talk to . . . rather than the cops treating them like criminals, they just wanted to be heard. A lady from the local media’s news channel interviewed the cop and told him that he was being called a hero. The cop’s response was “I’m not a hero.”
At the same time this peaceful protest was happening, rioters were gathered in a different spot with a news camera on them as well. I won’t waste my time talking about the rioters. Those who are peacefully protesting have a just cause and deserve to be heard. But riots should be expected in communities that won’t listen to peaceful protesters. I am certainly not advocating riots, only stating that they are often the end results for people who over a long period of time feel their voice has not been heard.
Here is what we as communities need to acknowledge: George Floyd and many other men of color should not have died at the hands of police and that justice should be served. I am not saying these men of color were all completely innocent. The underreported side of these encounters usually do tell a side where a minor crime was committed, arrest was resisted, and authority was undermined. None of these are good things, however in most of the cases made public, the actions of the cop do not fit the nature of the crime. For example, you don’t kill someone for stealing a candy bar.
I have long been a proponent of churches and communities hosting racial reconciliation roundtables. We need to be able to sit down at the table with others who look and talk differently than we do and have a civil conversation. I think we all have a lot to learn. But what I am learning in this latest episode is that we need to have next generation roundtables. We need to get the generations together, of all colors, to sit down and talk about what is happening and why it is happening. Where is the next generation coming from and why are they so passionate about what they believe? What have older generations gone through and what guidance can they offer the next generation fighting their own causes? These conversations need to happen and they need to begin happening now. This is where healing begins.