Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report writes that “No justice, no peace” is “a vow by the movement to transform the crisis that is inflicted on Black people into a generalized crisis for the larger society, and for those who currently rule.”
In reality, given the violence being inflicted upon people, particularly people of color, whether directly or indirectly through rising poverty, unemployment, homelessness, lack of access to health care and more, and the government’s failures to address these crises and listen to the people, disruption is a necessary element for political change.
Structural Racism
Institutionalized racism is a founding principle of the United States beginning with treatment of the Native inhabitants when settlers arrived and continuing today in the disparities between the ways that people of color and white people are treated. This was blatantly exposed recently when police in McKinney, Texas brutalized a fourteen year old girl and her friends at a pool party.
Lawrence Brown puts the racist terrorist attack in North Charleston, SC in context by documenting the history of brutality against blacks. He asks, “will white Americans confront the ideology of white supremacy and uproot it from every policy, practice, and community?” Alicia Garza urges us not to see the recent massacre in North Charleston as an isolated incident, nor to view it as a consequence of mental illness. Instead, it should be recognized as a manifestation of inherent racism and those who promote this racism should be held accountable.
Similarly Richard Rothstein outlines how racist public policies have caused racial disparities in housing and access to work. He describes how in Los Angeles, as in many cities across the country, primarily people of color are being displaced from their homes so that landlords and developers can make higher profits.
Communities are fighting back. Residents of one building in LA are sticking together and protesting weekly. Community members in LA are also taking action together to end police violence. In New York, the death of Kalief Browder who was jailed in Rikers, New York at sixteen and held for three years without trial is starting to change structural policies. It is a sad fact that it takes such tragedy to bring about this change.