What’s in a Riot?
What’s in a riot? When do riots get our blessing? When do we see them as sort of a righteous rebellion instead of a violation?
If you are prone to say the at times violent and destructive expressions of the protests of this past June over the death of George Floyd (and so many others) were riots rather than rebellions, a historical retrospective could change your perspective.
For instance, think about the Boston Tea Party. Was that a riot or a righteous rebellion?
Well, let’s take a look (briefly) at the Boston Tea Party and see if it challenges our perspectives on the riots and looting of this past June in America.
Here’s a very quick look at that event:*
The Boston Tea Party took place on December, 16 1773. It’s an infamous event in the American Revolution. In it, a group of colonists boarded docked tea ships, smashed open 342 chests of tea and dumped them into the harbor. They did this as a forceful refusal of the importation of tea that was coming under a newly levied British tax they opposed.
Though it was an iconic event, it was actually not an isolated event. It was not even the only protest over the tea tax. In fact, both New York and Philadelphia also refused shipment of newly taxed tea.
Nor was Boston the only city where tea shipments (which were private property) were destroyed. In Annapolis, “Marylanders burned both cargo and vessel, while proclaiming, ‘Liberty and Independence or death in pursuit of it.”*
In reality, tea protests were a colonies-wide response to what was felt to be an unjust situation (a tax), of which Boston’s response is just the most famous.
So how is the Boston Tea Party relevant to the protests and riots of June?
To see how it’s relevant, we need to break down the fundamental elements of what the Boston Tea Party was.
Here are the 3 fundamental elements of that event:
People all across the country (colonies, at that time) deeply believed they were being treated unjustly by those with power (via a tax).
Those with power disagreed with and/or ignored the complaints of the people.
When confronted with continued, public actions they saw as unjust, people in several locations (Boston, Annapolis) responded with the violent destruction of private property (which they did not own and did not make restitution for).
Looking at these 3 elements, it does not take much imagination to realize that they are the same 3 fundamental elements of the riots and destruction of property we saw in June.
Take another look at the riots of this June through these 3 fundamental elements:
People all across the country deeply believed they were being treated unjustly by those with power (police in particular).
Those with power disagreed with and/or ignored the complaints of the people.
When confronted with continued, public actions they saw as unjust (for example, the death of George Floyd), people in several locations (Minneapolis, Philadelphia, etc.) responded with the violent destruction of private property (which they did not own and did not make restitution for).
When we recognize this the question becomes:
“If these events share the same fundamental elements, do I look favorably — maybe even proudly — on the Boston Tea Party and yet unfavorably and judgmentally on the rioting and destruction of June?”
It’s a hard question, but one that’s worth exploring.
Think about it this way: If your tweets, posts, and conversations over the past month were transported back in time to December 1773 and magically changed into pamphlets, newspapers articles and conversations, would you sound more like a loyalist to the Crown or an American revolutionary?
Would you be angry over the destruction of property and dismissive of the cause (a loyalist)? Or would you be supportive of the cause even if you didn’t support the destruction of property (a revolutionary)?
Try to really think about it. Whose side would your own comments about the present day protests and riots say you would have supported back then? Is that who you would want to support now?
The point of all this is to challenge you to ask: “Does the way I judge people’s response to injustice show an unjust, inconsistent favoritism?”
Again, it’s a tough question, but one that’s also worth exploring.
Does it seem that you give some people an endorsement (white American Revolutionaries), but give others (people of color) judgment for doing fundamentally the same thing?
Is there in a blindness and inconsistency in the way you treat people and evaluate them?
I suggest the answer is yes, because the gospel tells us just that.
The gospel tells us we all have blindness and inconsistencies in the way we treat others.
It tells us we actually have those things in every part of our souls (i.e., Jeremiah 17:9; Rom. 3:9-18; Eph. 2:1-2). If it’s true we have those problems in every part of us, it shouldn’t surprise us to find out we have blindspots and inconsistencies when it comes to who we support and who we label as ‘unruly.’
We know we’re broken. That’s a fundamental confession of being a Christian — that you’re totally broken from top to bottom. We believe none of us is perfect in any way while we’re here on earth. We all have room to grow and brokenness to move past.
But the beauty of the gospel is that even when you find out you are broken in some new way — when you discover you have blindspots and unjust prejudices — that discovery is not your end.
Rather, it’s the beginning of a journey toward greater wholeness, greater justice and greater love. It gets to be a moment of redemption, not a moment of exclusion, if you — through the power of the Holy Spirit — move humbly towards listening, repentance, reconciliation and change.
I encourage you, then…
Do just that. Let this thought exercise move you humbly towards listening, repentance, reconciliation and change.
Consider how you might change your thoughts on today’s protestors and rioters in light of this comparison. Can you start to see the fundamental outcry in their actions? Can you find the similarity?
Let the past challenge your view of the present. Maybe that challenge will help our present meaningfully change from the racial injustices which still plague or society.
*Background information and quotes drawn from, David M. Kennedy, et al, “The American Pageant.” New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002, p.132-33.