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Ferguson: Riot or Rebellion?
The Huffington Post's The Blog ^ | December 19, 2014 | Professor Jack Schneider, College of the Holy Cross

Posted on 12/21/2014 10:15:12 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." So observed a sanguine Thomas Jefferson in 1787, responding to news of violent uprising in Massachusetts.

But who ranks as a patriot? And what counts as tyranny? As it turns out, it depends on skin color. Just look in a history textbook.

If whites are involved, uprisings tend to be framed as rebellions. Flip through the index of any social studies text, and you'll find several of them: Bacon's Rebellion, Shays's Rebellion, Dorr's Rebellion. The list goes on.

When blacks are involved, however, an uprising isn't a rebellion; it's a riot. Harlem, Watts, Chicago. Or, more recently, Ferguson.

The point here is not that a riot and a rebellion are one and the same. They aren't. A rebellion is inherently meaningful. It connotes resistance to authority or control. A riot, by contrast, disturbs an otherwise peaceful society -- it is an expression of power and energy rather than of simmering resentment and honest anger. After a riot, everyone goes home and sobers up.

In spite of these seemingly clear distinctions, however, race plays a significant role in how violence is framed for the public. And though such framing may begin informally in conversation or in popular media, it persists in what our children are taught in school and affects the way we understand each other.

For those who lived through them, the so-called riots of the past half century were harrowing events. Those angry -- about their interactions with police; about their daily interactions with bigotry; about their poverty and their limited opportunities -- unleashed their disappointments and their rage. And cities exploded. To many, the violence seemed to come out of nowhere....

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Education; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: blacks; ferguson; racism; riots
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Comments?
1 posted on 12/21/2014 10:15:13 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

People with nothing better to do just looking for an excuse to f-— s—t up. Rebels without a clue.


2 posted on 12/21/2014 10:17:31 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Dam’ fool doesn’t know the difference between “sanguine” and “sanguinary”. Not worth reading any further.


3 posted on 12/21/2014 10:18:28 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: AnAmericanMother

Look where he teaches EDUCATION.


4 posted on 12/21/2014 10:20:43 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Maybe because whites often are driven by ideology and purpose in their uprisings while blacks just destroy, steal, and kill, often to the detriment of whatever vague, shallow, inarticulate cause the say they’re supporting.


5 posted on 12/21/2014 10:22:33 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What racist drivel. It is a riot caused by Dorian Johnson’s lies; organization & training provided by Holder; street agitation provided by Sharpton, Crump, and Parks; and MC-ing the whole affair is Obama who calls it “justifiable anger” and who admonishes police.


6 posted on 12/21/2014 10:22:57 AM PST by Ray76 (Who gave the stand down order in Ferguson? Who gave the stand down order in Benghazi?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Hoodsie the Owl says....


7 posted on 12/21/2014 10:23:15 AM PST by cripplecreek (You can't half ass conservatism.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Riot, looting, mayhem. Nothing rebellious about this. It was simply criminal activity.


8 posted on 12/21/2014 10:26:10 AM PST by Reno89519 (For every illegal or H1B with a job, there's an American without one.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’d have to say a bunch of shirtless black men looting a quick mart hardly qualifies as some sort of rebellion against tyranny.

This element is ready to riot at a moment’s notice. They love chaos, and all the sensationalism around Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson gave them all the excuse they needed to do what they wanted to do anyway.

What was the lesson we’re supposed to learn from Ferguson? That white police officers should let blacks assault or murder them if they choose to?

What’s next? Comparing Ferguson to the Boston Massacre?


9 posted on 12/21/2014 10:27:14 AM PST by TheGipperWasRight
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“If whites are involved, uprisings tend to be framed as rebellions. “

You mean burning and looting following an unpopular trial outcome? Nah.
There’s a book out portraying the beating of Rodney King as a rebellion. It was a in a book store years ago and it talked about uprising etc. The book portrayed the shameful behavior of those involved as sort of a Mad Max/Rosa Parks combination. Really, it rewrote events into a complete alternate reality, casting rioters as heroic persons of high moral standards etc. They were portrayed as brave. It’s thug culture that likes to portray riots as uprisings. Uprisings wherein one robs liquor stores etc. and comes home with new TVs.


10 posted on 12/21/2014 10:27:43 AM PST by ransomnote
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
A riot, by contrast, disturbs an otherwise peaceful society -- it is an expression of power and energy rather than of simmering resentment and honest anger. After a riot, everyone goes home and sobers up.

A riot is a good excuse to loot. A rebellion, not so much.

11 posted on 12/21/2014 10:29:29 AM PST by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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To: demshateGod

But let’s do frame it as a revolution or rebellion. What is its purpose? #blacklivesmatter? No. The black lives murdered everyday in Chicago don’t matter to anyone. The millions of black babies ripped apart don’t matter. That’s not it. Justice for Brown? No. Everyone knows why he was shot. The evidence show this revolution’s mantra should be #killwhitey. Let’s look at it that way and treat it as a threat to our very lives.


12 posted on 12/21/2014 10:29:50 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Comments? The author is an idiot. Rebellions aim to replace the existing power structure, with leadership of those in rebellion. Rioters are just venting. The crowd in Ferguson was rioters. One can tell by their choice of targets for arson.


13 posted on 12/21/2014 10:31:24 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Bacon's Rebellion, Shays's Rebellion, Dorr's Rebellion

They weren't welfare leeches.

The looters of Ferguson are.

14 posted on 12/21/2014 10:33:16 AM PST by MUDDOG
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

” A rebellion is inherently meaningful. It connotes resistance to authority or control”

Like prison riots? Resistance to authority or control?
Like looting businesses and resisting arrest?

These riots directly impact the prosperity of the nation. The reason we weren’t a third world country in the past is because we had a functioning rule of law. Businesses could invest in our country because their assets would be protected by the rule of law. But our third-world-wanna-bees are taking that apart. Businesses no longer want to invest in their communities and as this unrest grows, businesses will move to protect their assets. And our quality of life falls.

I think Obama would applaud all this. He’d like his Homeland Security militia to step in and replace the police. He’s done NOTHING to improve the situation. And when cops don’t feel like being assassinated for showing up to work, the rule of law retreats and with it, takes prosperity and peace. Yes, Obama would approve.


15 posted on 12/21/2014 10:33:33 AM PST by ransomnote
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I suppose it depends on motive, what do they want?


16 posted on 12/21/2014 10:34:42 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Bacon's Rebellion, Shays's Rebellion, Dorr's Rebellion.

All referring to colonial or early American events.

Since our Civil War, the greatest of all Rebellions, there have been quite a few race riots. Befoe WWII almost entirely attacks by whites on blacks, since WWII almost entirely attacks by blacks on their own neighborhoods with some unfortunate whites caught up in them.

AFAIK, all these events, white and black, have been called riots, because that's what they were.

17 posted on 12/21/2014 10:39:05 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: AnAmericanMother

Actually, sanguine fits quite well.

TJ was calm and unflappable about a situation in which other Founders were flipping out. Which is what sanguine means.


18 posted on 12/21/2014 10:40:31 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: TheGipperWasRight
some sort of rebellion against tyranny

It's the tyranny of moral behavior.

19 posted on 12/21/2014 10:40:47 AM PST by tbpiper
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Ferguson was an exercise in divide and conquer by the current fed regime.

Judging by the outcome, and the amount of damage done, and the apathetic response to the whole situation, the feds and their totalitarian backers are right on schedule to turn the US into a communist ran shithole like china, russia, or mexico.

But at least a chosen few made a profit from making the US their own personal fiefdom.

20 posted on 12/21/2014 10:40:48 AM PST by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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