Riots have become commonplace in America – so commonplace that some people no longer seem able to distinguish between a riot and a protest. If Americans feel wronged, we take to the streets. We loot stores or break the windows of cars; we throw things at police officers who are just doing their jobs, and then we have the gall to complain when “protestors” are arrested.
A protest ceases to be a protest the instant people start getting violent – at that moment, the protest becomes a riot. And while riots will certainly get our voices heard, they will also discredit us and our message, no matter how earnest or even right the rioters’ desires are.
There’s a reason Martin Luther King Jr. called for peaceful protests during the Civil Rights Movement – if civil rights activists had gone about getting their voices heard and achieving their goals through violence, their white oppressors would have just said, “See? We were right!”
Remaining peaceful forced the oppressors to openly oppress. If they wanted to silence civil rights activists’ voices, they’d need to do it openly and violently, to men and women who weren’t hurting a soul.
Rioting simply makes the participants look like criminals, and it hurts our communities more than the people we are angry with. It is the shop owner, the home owner, and the car owner who have to pick up the pieces and deal with massive monetary loss and emotional damage, not the government.
And yet I’ve heard many people argue that, although the results of riots are not desirable, they’re the only way to get our voices heard. Or that they are simply an inevitable symptom of a larger problem.
I call bull.
Here’s my proof: South Korea is dealing with a massive corruption scandal right now. South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, was caught allowing her longtime friend and pastor, Choi Soon-sil, access to confidential information as well as Presidential speeches.
CNN also reports that Choi was accused of “using her relationship with Park to accumulate millions of dollars of donations to her foundations.” Choi and two of Park’s former aids were arrested, and Choi was “charged with abuse of power, [as well as] fraud and coercion.”
Understandably, the Korean people are infuriated with President Park, and have called for her resignation. At first, President Park merely apologized, but South Koreans doubted her sincerity and did not trust that she would stop compromising classified information.
In response, Koreans protested in massive numbers for well over a month. On Saturday, November 26, 1.9 million South Koreans joined together to protest and call for Park’s resignation.
It was completely peaceful.
This demonstrates several things that Americans should pay really close attention to. South Koreans have a very, very good reason to be angry with their President and their government, and they have gathered together to show their anger.
Despite how infuriated they are, however, they have not been violent. Even a protest of 1.9 million people (in a country with a total population of only 50 million people, by the way) remained completely peaceful.
Additionally, their voices have been heard. On Friday, December 9, South Korea’s National Assembly voted to impeach President Park. With only six abstainers, she was impeached with a vote of 234-56.
This problem of corruption in South Korea’s government won’t disappear now that Park has been impeached, but the government is listening to its people – without the people “having” to get violent in order to achieve that attention.
So no, Americans don’t need to resort to riots in order to have our voices heard. If we stand in solidarity, peacefully, our voices can and will still be heard. Moreover, our communities won’t suffer, our message will remain uncorrupted, and everyone will be much safer.
Riots aren’t an inevitable symptom of a problem. We can be very angry – and justly so – without manifesting that anger in a violent manner. We can show our anger without destroying property, burning things, or hurting police officers who have pledged to uphold the law and to keep us safe.
South Korea has done it, and now it’s time for America to learn from them. It is time for us to take the responsibility of getting our voices heard without violence. It is a sad day for any country when they become convinced that violence is the first and only option – especially when that is far from true.