The 1960s report that told the USA it was racist

[ruby sparks]

Interesting BBC news video from today:

"In the summer of 1967 more than 100 cities in America were caught up in riots. US Senator Fred Harris urged the President, Lyndon B Johnson, to investigate the causes. He set up the Kerner Commission and appointed Fred Harris as one of 11 members to find out why America was burning. The final report shocked many Americans when it blamed white racism for creating and sustaining black ghettos".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-54340456

Story says the report was rejected.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

White racism was definitely the issue that caused all the rioting.

 

[southernhybrid]

A riot is the language of he unherard

I think MLK understood this better than anyone else.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/917022/riot-language-unheard-martin-luther-king-jr-explained-53-years-ago

Rioting and looting isn't new in America — and it isn't exclusive to any race. As areas of Minneapolis shifted from peaceful protest against the death of George Floyd to looting, arson, and vandalism on Wednesday and Thursday night, the King Center — founded by Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow to promote MLK Jr.'s "nonviolent philosophy and methodology" — posted this excerpt from King's 1967 "The Other America" speech at Stanford University.

Speaking two years after California's Watts riots in August 1965 and race riots in Harlem the previous summer, King spent a few minutes trying to explain the cause of rioting to his predominantly white audience.


America has consistently "taken a positive step forward on the question of racial justice and racial equality" only to follow it with "certain backward steps," King said. Because of widespread and widely ignored black poverty and racial injustice, "all of our cities are potentially powder kegs," he added, and "many in moments of anger, many in moments of deep bitterness engage in riots." King continued:

Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. ... But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. [Martin Luther King Jr., "The Other America"]

Same as it ever was, unfortunately.

 

[skepticalbip]

The chants of the demonstrators I remember from the late 60s was, "Hey, hey LBJ. How many boys did you kill today". These were protests against the Vietnam war and the draft that were so wide spread and raucous that it is said that they were the reason LBJ decided not to run for a second term.

The tens of thousands of Vietnam war protesters that showed up in Chicago to protest at the Democratic convention in 1968 engaged in battles with the police and burned a good deal of the city.

 

[Valjean]

The chants of the demonstrators I remember from the late 60s was, "Hey, hey LBJ. How many boys did you kill today". These were protests against the Vietnam war and the draft that were so wide spread and raucous that it is said that they were the reason LBJ decided not to run for a second term.

The tens of thousands of Vietnam war protesters that showed up in Chicago to protest at the Democratic convention in 1968 engaged in battles with the police and burned a good deal of the city.

And, much like today, the riots were caused by the police. As the Walker Report stated, they were (are), "Police Riots."

Police tend to be authoritarian. They are obsessed with order and propriety. Demonstrators are disorderly. They disrespect the Nationalist values the police hold sacred. They are evil and deserve to be punished.

As for racism, polls in the '60s indicated the American public believed it had largely been eliminated. Little has changed. Polls still find Americans blind to their own racism.
The first step in eliminating a problem is realizing there is a problem.

 

[skepticalbip]

The chants of the demonstrators I remember from the late 60s was, "Hey, hey LBJ. How many boys did you kill today". These were protests against the Vietnam war and the draft that were so wide spread and raucous that it is said that they were the reason LBJ decided not to run for a second term.

The tens of thousands of Vietnam war protesters that showed up in Chicago to protest at the Democratic convention in 1968 engaged in battles with the police and burned a good deal of the city.

And, much like today, the riots were caused by the police. As the Walker Report stated, they were (are), "Police Riots."

Police tend to be authoritarian. They are obsessed with order and propriety. Demonstrators are disorderly. They disrespect the Nationalist values the police hold sacred. They are evil and deserve to be punished.

Yeah I understand that some people think it is so cool when other people's property and livelihood is destroyed by rioters... as in those fucking capitalist deserve to be deprived of their property.

I'm sure that if it was their home, car, possessions, and place of work that the rioters destroyed they would be just as tickled... probably have an ejulation as they watched it happen knowing that this would really get even with those fucking cops.