In response to the Neo-nazi/KKK/White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville last weekend, there has been a lot of justifiable, visceral anger from those who criticize and oppose hatred and racism.
Once news broke that a White Supremacist had intentionally driven his car into a crowd of anti-racism demonstrators - killing one person - the outrage heated up exponentially.
I will gladly count myself among those who feel righteous anger at those who advocate hatred and feel that the use of violent force in pursuit of their racist beliefs is justified. No one has ever had to guess what my opinion is about racism, demagogues who peddle it, and domestic right wing terrorists.
That being said, I've seen some responses that don't sit well with me. Among them would be statements like "punch nazis," "smash fascists," and "we need to treat fascists like we did in World War II," the implication of course being that we should kill them.
I too have the same instinctual, emotional reaction of "these domestic terrorists should get a taste of their own medicine." But there are many reasons why I won't join the chorus of voices advocating retaliatory violence.
Some of those reasons are purely strategic.
If MLK's work in the Civil Rights Movement should have taught those of us who advocate for progressive reform anything, it should be that not retaliating violently gives your side the moral high ground. Ghandi, Cesar Chavez, and Desmond Tutu all similarly understood and utilized assertive nonviolent protest.
There are 3 practical reasons why nonviolent direction action is the only strategy worth pursuing.
- Violent retaliation only plays into the dismissive caricatures of "thugs" and "terrorists" that those all-too-eager to smear protestors routinely attempt to utilize. This propaganda false flat when it is leveled against nonviolent protesters.
- It may sound crass at first blush, but in the era of mass media, optics matter. In the 1960's when average US citizens saw peaceful civil rights activists being attacked with dogs, police batons, fire hoses, and bombs on the evening news, the Civil Rights Movement had effectively won the battle for the public's hearts and minds.
- Not retaliating violently interrupts the cycle of violence and prevents the continued downward spiraling of society. If the desired result of opposing hate and violence is to prevent it from occurring in the future, nonviolent direction action is the tool of choice. The only purpose that retaliating violently serves is to vent frustration. Though seemingly cathartic in the short term, it serves no long term strategic purpose.
- Two wrongs don't make a right. One of the reasons I am a pacifist is because I see the use of violence as necessarily immoral. How can one claim to have ethical integrity if one's response to violence that is clearly wrong is itself violent? How would one's actions be any different than those of the forces of hate?
- Dehumanization is always wrong. Committing violence against someone else is only possible when a victim is seen as being something other than a co-equal member of the human race. Violence is necessarily the result of a victim first having been dehumanized in the eyes of their attacker. By retaliating violently, would not one be guilty of the exact same wrong that the forces of hatred and oppression are guilty of - namely seeing another person as being less than fully human?
Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are 100% wrong in their beliefs and their rhetoric is divisive and dangerous. At the same time, they are still human beings. They are certainly hateful and abusive, but they are still humans - and therefore inherently deserving of a basic level of respect and decency.
As a society, we've endured other times when the forces of hatred and violence have reared their heads. We have emerged as more just, progressive, and egalitarian society on the other side of those times due to the work of nonviolent activists. These ordinary people had the courage and moral fiber to directly and assertively oppose the forces of extraordinary evil and darkness. Their's is the example we should look to and emulate.
