Why Is There Rioting?

Rioting is a community convulsion of pain.

Please ask yourself, why was there rioting? Martin Luther King, Jr. told us, “Rioting is the language of the unheard.”

Why did the murder of George Floyd spark rioting?

No one wants to see rioting. Most people, I’m certain, answering “Black Lives Matters” with “All Lives Matter” think they intend to be be an ally and mean thier words with compassion. I can accept they believe themselves to be offering valid, necessary advice on how to protest when they decry rioting. They almost certainly intend to speak in wisdom.

However, decrying the rioting is not wisdom — it is not helpful. Indeed, it heaps hot coals on already burning black and brown heads — burning heads white privilege lit on fire. Rioting is a community convulsion of pain. The rioting is not what should concern us.

What should concern us is the reasons for the screaming pain causing the rioting. Our black and brown fellow citizens are hurting… They’re hurting and dying. They have been hurting and dying for 400 years. We need to be more concerned about the intolerable level of hurt and cruelty which drives such cultural convulsions as rioting.