On violence as a means of protest

I made a sarcastic comment earlier about how the only thing that is really going to impact change on the City of Chaska is a riot. I was informed that I should be cautious about voicing these sorts of opinions because if riots were to ever break out, I could be blamed for it and held liable.

If a Law enforcement agency continues to perpetuate violence against various marginizled demographics, where they face no accountability for thier actions, in such cases is rioting wrong?I like many used to be a fan of peaceful protests and negotiations but the simple fact of the matter is that it gets us absolutely nowhere.

The older I get, the more I see that riots are part of the evolution of society or as MLK once aptly stated "Riots are the language of the unheard" because we don't live in a utopia, where people are afforded the basic human rights, that they deserve, simply because they exist. Until we get there the voices of those who are lost at the margins in all of thier sorrow, frusteration, anger and pain will continue to spill out on the streets.

So called "Normal" people sit at home on their sofas, with thier kids thier spouse and thier white picket fence in the front yard and there is a whole lot of passing judgement, head shaking and finger wagging going on because if we are able te denigrate those fighting for change and define them by thier decisions that on occasion result in violence, we can maintain the status quo and never take any substantive action

There's hundreds of pages on social media cites devoted to the disparagement of the violence in fergusen, many of which stem from the Tea Party wing of the Republican party. Yet, even the Tea Party got it's name from a riot. In 1773, American Protestors led by individuals such as Samuel Adams dumped an entire shipment of tea into Boston Harbor, to protest the tea act, which colonists at the time maintained violated thier rights, In response, George III and the British Government at the time attempted to enforce the coercive acts, which ultimatly stripped various colonies of their ability to self-govern and was one of the catalysts that led to the American Revolution which ultimatly created this country.

The Boston Tea Party was meant to affect societal change, while the destruction of property in that case may not have ended in loss of human life, the American Revolution did. Once again, in our history, we see a cry for help from the oppressed and the question is will we answer it or in what fashion will we answer it?

The Simple fact of tthe matter is that peaceful protesting is a luxury for those who have the time, the finaces and resources to simply wait at home and wait for the change that they desire to come about, who are consistantly assured that thier voices will be heard and included regardless and thus they join the endless chorus for peaceful assembly shaming leaders in the black community for thier actions that may or may not result in a riot.
It deserves to be recognized thar we riot becuse we are the only population in this country that still need to. When the Rodney King Verdict was handed down, in the 90s, 30 years of oppression, of groveling, of degredation boiled over. 3 decades of trying to talk about the history of profiling of discrimmination and in general vastly unfair and dare I say it..blatantly racist treatment boiled over. The City burned. The landscape began to change and police took note.

The sort of racism that we saw exhibited in the Rodney King verdict, is the same racism here today. While, it may not culminate in separate water fountains or in select seating in the back of the bus , its even more insidious because it's showing up in the fact that black children are afraid to go to school because they know that they will be mistreated on the sole basis of the color of thier skin and that if they respond, they will be disciplined and they will be disciplined differently. It shows itself in the public beatings of our youth and young males, particularily those who are disabled who they prey on at thier most vulnerable moment and then attempt to ram through the system before anyone notices.

Rather then tearing down people who have been dehumanized for over a century, we could be reaching out to this peoplulation and assisting them in rebuilding thier humanity and supporting them so that once again, they feel safe walking down the block, not just when tempers flare or buildings burn but starting when your born the wrong color in america.

I am not neither going to go as far as to encourage or condone violence against the City of Chaska and/or local officials who perpetuate what is literally a modern day system of Jim Crow but I am also not going to discourage it.

If the City of Chaska burned tomorrow. If thier public officials were dragged into the streets and treated with the same level of violence that they have treated others, I personally wouldnt lose any sleep at night and to be honest if they wanted to blame me for it..que sera.

Reflections on MLK and the modern day Disability Rights movement

Today many are celebrating the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King jr. MLK is a leader who many activists idolize and work to emulate. Recently, I have shared in many of his thoughts on the so called white liberals as my criticisms  mirror those of Dr. King as the issues continue to be the same across multiple generations and multiple movements including the disability rights movement because the parralels between the white moderates whom Dr. King criticized in 1963 and nonprofit advocacy organizations whom many disability activists are criticizing in 2019 couldn't be clearer.

They consistently talk about self advocates being  uncompromising, mad, immature, participating in a circular firing squad, blowing up and burning bridges, in need of further support ,alienating allies and a variety of other sentiments about our work.

It's similair to the rhetoric, in the spring of 1963 when Dr. Martin Luther King along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began to organize a series of nonviolent protests in Alabama. These protests consisted of demonstrations and sit-ins that targeted white-owned businesses and churches. The City of Birmingham ordered them to cease the protests. In an act of blatant civil disobedience, King and the protesters ignored the injunction in an act of direct civil disobedience, King and 50 protesters were subsequently arrested.

Following the incident, a group of white clergymen wrote a letter, titled, “A Call for Unity,” in which, they criticized the confrontational nature of the protests and called for the black community to obey the injunction and seek redress through lawful means:

"We the undersigned clergymen are among those who, in January, issued “An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense,” in dealing with racial problems in Alabama. We expressed understanding that honest convictions in racial matters could properly be pursued in the courts, but urged that decisions of those courts should in the meantime be peacefully obeyed."

The clergymen also criticized the demonstrations as “unwise and untimely” and being led by “outsiders”:

"However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely."

After pointing out that some of the Black leadership disagreed with the methods of king and his colleagues—“We agree rather with certain local Negro leadership which has called for honest and open negotiation of racial issues in our area”—they went on to argue that the protests were inciting “hatred and violence”:

"Just as we formerly pointed out that “hatred and violence have no sanction in our religious and political traditions,” we also point out that such actions as incite to hatred and violence, however technically peaceful those actions may be, have not contributed to the resolution of our local problems. We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham."

They finished off thier letter calling for “law and order and common sense”:

"When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets. We appeal to both our white and Negro citizenry to observe the principles of law and order and common sense."

In response, King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in which he noted that freedom must be demanded by the oppressed and that there’s no such thing as being "well timed" when it comes to confronting systemic oppression:

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

King also criticized the white moderate because  they seemed more devoted to order than to justice:

"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

He continued on to defend his fellow protesters citing that they were not the cause of the tension, they were simply were merely making an effort to bring that tension to light:

"I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."

King also noted that perhaps he had been too optimistic in thinking that the white moderate would see the need for “strong, persistent, and determined action”:

"I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action."

He also praised those white allies—”few in quantity,” but “big in quality”—who were in the trenches with him and committed to taking action and joining the civil rights movement in an effort to pursue a necessary social revolution:

"I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some—such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle—have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as “dirty nigger-lovers.” Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful “action” antidotes to combat the disease of segregation."

All these so called  allies calling for "order" and "comprimise" and attempting to instill a pseudo sense of  unity and peace  in the face of what is becoming a massive systemic injustice are no different than these eight white clergymen who called out Dr King for “unity” called King and his “outsiders.” They are doing the same thing  in 2019 to the Self Advocates of the modern day Disability Justice movement.

Much like white clergymen who criticized King’s protests as “untimely and unwise,” The sentiment of the advocacy group allies seems to be: “We’re in the legislative session, so all these disabled people trying to advocate for  themselves should chill out or else they’re going to hurt our chances at passing our organizational agenda, Now is not the time.”

Third, just as the white clergymen called for the protesters to negotiate with city leaders rather than take to the streets, So have many people wonder why I chose to voice publicly criticize State Senator Jim Abeler for his Autism Council rather than ask him politely for a rap session behind closed doors.(even though I did both)

Fourth, just as the white clergymen pointed to other Black leaders who disagreed with King’s tactics—“[w]e agree rather with certain local Negro leadership which has called for honest and open negotiation of racial issues in our area”—in order to bolster support for their own criticism, so too have many white progressives latched on to the criticisms of other people with Disabilities who disagree with the’ tactics of the greater disability rights movement to promote their own criticism but every movement has conflict between leaders   i.e Malcolm vs MLK.

The similarities between the white moderate of the 1960s and the white liberal of 2019  who are overrepresented in disability Advocacy orgs are nearly identical  They claim to be so devoutely "progressive", but they act more like the white clergymen who opposed King than the white allies who supported King as they are the first to criticize activists of all movements for not being more like King. Demanding that they follow Kings tactics 

The Martin Luther King Jr. People hold up as this hippie sort of symbol of peace love and tranquility isn't the real Martin Luther King Jr . MLK was a disruptor. MLK was a lawbreaker. MLK was not beholden to protesting the right thing, at the right time or on other peoples schedules.

King recognized as I do that the right time to do something about injustice and systemic oppression is right now. Not tommorrow, not when you get off, not 6 weeks from now. Right now! 

Those who have responded to my guest blog on the Council on Disability by being offended, probably should  be offended. Those who have threatend to walk away from me or say that I've lost a supporter ( as if it's some sort of threat) are the precise sort of  folks who, unlike true allies, refuse to recognize the urgency of this moment. They are more concerned with tone and respectability politics than they are about the civil rights of people with Disabilities

And sadly, many are more concerned with gaining votes from my community than they are improving the quality of our lives and defending our rights and liberties.

“We support Disability rights, but not the tactics of these self advocates.”

“You’re hurting the chance of electig the only person who cares about you.”

“ insert long time parent activist name here" was fighting for you before you were born.”

" If you give us your story to use in our testimony we will now sure POC who have disabilities are spoken for and incorporated"

Once again these are all the same claims of the white clergymen who asked Dr. King and the protesters to “observe the principles of law and order and common sense.” These are not the claims of allies. These are the claims of oppressors or, at a minimum, of people so comfortable with ableism and the privileges it grants, that they aren’t truly willing to take the necessary action to do anything real about it.

To my so called allies , critical of my reprimand to the advocacy organizations, asking people to sit down and shut up until after session or to wait until time is convinent for you. I'm here to tell you that’s not going to happen.

There can be no order or unity when certain people assault the work of self advocates and there can't be any forward movement when the response from our supposed allies when we express frusteration. Towards you is I'm not able-ist, some of my best friends are disabled or I had a cast for 6 months so  I know everything about the barriers you face in everyday life. There cant be any sort of collective victory , when you continuously demonstrate that you care more about the order of the status quo and advancing your organizational agenda than you care about the every day lives of  the people you claim to represent and support.   

You can continue to criticize and continue to attempt to preserve the statutes  quo. It's fine, but know this: We are not going to sit down and shut up, we will keep speaking out and we will keep moving forward..we will just do it without you.