What race riots accomplish
Donald Trump, the 2016 law and order candidate, resembles the 1968 presidential candidates George Wallace and Richard Nixon in his aim to bring peace to the streets. Like Wallace and Nixon, Trump interprets law and order through race. While he aims to appeal to the black population by lending an ear to their concerns about “hood” life, he has promised to fight crime with the unconstitutional stop and frisk policy, which systematically profiles black and brown Americans.
Watching the coverage of recent riots unfolding in Milwaukee and Charlotte, I grew angry. Privileged white policy officials responded with complaints that “they” are burning down their own neighborhood, closing local businesses that employ them, and targeting the police force for killing an armed black man who could have brought harm to other black people. It was only a matter of time before Hillary Clinton and Trump offered responses about saving black people from themselves.
These policy analysts failed to ask or answer the real question: why do black people riot? The community space of black Americans does not resemble what Trump calls hell. However, past institutional structures like Jim Crow have left a legacy of marginalization in black communities. Trump and much of white America fails to understand what black churches have clearly articulated: black people take to the streets and riot in order to protest systematic problems in society.
