Protest is Essential to Peace

Last updated on: September 26, 2016 at 12:30 pm by Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Protest is Essential to Peace 2016-09-26T12:30:55-05:00 Lindsey Paris-Lopez

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Protest is not antithetical to peace. Protest is essential to peace. The uprising in Charlotte, portrayed (at least for the first 2 days) by the mainstream media as an out-of-control riot, was a peacemaking event that will in time, in combination with other uprisings from shore to shore, help our nation live into its heretofore elusive motto of liberty and justice for all.

The media gave a skewed narrative of the events of Wednesday night’s protest over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, presenting those marching on behalf of the victims of state-sanctioned violence as being the sole perpetrators of violence. Live Facebook feeds, which have since been censored, told a different story. Accounts from participants describe the march, from the opening vigil in Marshall Park up until several hours later, as a peaceful event that became violent only after police repeatedly attempted to disperse crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets. Videos of people coughing in toxic gases, their eyes burning with chemicals, documented excessive force. Before it was pulled, I saw video of a man leading the crowd in a 1-word chant, “Love,” before being pulled behind police lines. The message that needed urgent attention – that black people are being targeted, harassed, and killed by law enforcement with impunity, and this status quo will no longer be tolerated – was brutally suppressed not only by the officers, but by the media covering the story. And this skewed coverage, undermining the essential message of the uprising and highlighting one side of the violence while ignoring its cause, is a service to the myth of American exceptionalism – a myth that must be dismantled.

The narrative of America as the “indispensable nation” and the “my country, right or wrong” patriotism drilled into the citizenry is – according to some interpretations – undermined by citizens rising up to express their anger and grief in acts of protest (although others wisely argue that the right to protest is part our nation’s beauty.) In particular, uprisings that speak to systemic injustices and inequities are rarely tolerated by those who have a stake in perpetuating the status quo. Unfortunately, the status quo – the American normal – is not the standard-bearer of freedom, justice and equality that so many people claim it to be. The United States is a nation built on slavery and genocide that has never fully acknowledged or repent of the sins of her past, which have reincarnated throughout the generations in myriad forms, from Jim Crow laws to lynchings to redlining to school-to-prison pipelines. Behind every police shooting of an unarmed African American is a history that permeates and poisons our nation – a history of dehumanization, segregation and discrimination. As I have argued before, police officers are the front lines of systemic injustice that runs far deeper than policing.

But the myth of American exceptionalism wants to deny this injustice. It therefore ignores the heart of the injustice that protestors condemn and marginalizes those who express their anger as trouble-makers. That scapegoating narrative not only denies the particular grievance of police brutality, but is in itself a part of the systemic injustice that feeds and exacerbates that brutality.

Myths feign greatness by disappearing victims, and the marginalization of protestors is cleverly crafted to erase or delegitimize grievances and demonize those who utter them. Thus, so many see protestors as unnecessary agitators disturbing the peace.

But there is no peace in a nation where people can be killed by officers of the law with no accountability because of the color of their skin. There is no peace when African Americans are targeted for arrest more often and imprisoned for longer terms than whites for the same crimes. There is no peace when African American communities – segregated first by law and then by white flight – are economically depressed because resources and services are taken away. There is no peace in a nation where generations of demonization and pseudo-science leave a subconscious fear of African Americans in the minds of whites – a fear that is rarely acknowledged or repented but acted on in innumerable microaggressions.

The popular slogan, “No justice, no peace,” is not a threat, it is a truth. Until there is justice, peace is worse than an illusion, it is a lie meant to hide the suffering of real people.

That’s why those who march are instruments of peace. They put their full humanity – in all of its courage and compassion and faith in the power of the people to affect change – on display in a society that would deny it. They express frustration and holy anger toward a system that would repress other human beings – living images of God – rather than content themselves in a world of indifference to suffering. Wednesday night was not free of violence, but the great majority of the protestors remained peaceful, and the violence of a few does not negate the intention or steadfast dedication to nonviolence of the many. While we should denounce all violence, we must start with the systemic violence that protests expose and condemn.

Peace is hard-won through struggle – not through fighting, but through courageously declaring truth. That truth will be resisted by those who want to deny charges of injustice, who want to believe that reasons for discontent lie with individuals and communities instead of systemic pathologies infecting our whole nation. They will accuse protestors of being divisive and contentious, and believe skewed media narratives that attribute all violence and civil unrest to them.

But Jesus, even as he came to bring peace on earth, once said, “I have not come to bring peace, but division!” He said this because peace that is built on the backs of victims is disrupted when those victims rise up, assert their humanity, and refuse to be victims any longer. Peace and prosperity built at the expense of African Americans, as well as Native and Latino Americans – a sense of identity built over and against others – must be gutted of its rotten foundation and rebuilt upon the principals of love and universal human dignity. The Civil Rights marches of the 60s drew us closer to that true peace, and protests today carry on that tradition.

Peace is created, piece by piece, by people standing up in love for one another. Men and women of all ages and races are doing that in Charlotte. We must all do likewise in many ways, every day, everywhere, until the full dignity of every human being is acknowledged and God’s image is honored in all of its 7 billion reflections.

Image: Screenshot from Youtube: “State of Emergency in NC after Charlotte protests turn violent” by CBS News

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