Over the past centuries, social protests have played a key part in American society. Throughout these past recent one hundred years there have been social protests for gender equality, racial equality, voting rights, education rights, and human rights. As society is evolving, social protesting has become a major part of our lifestyle among younger and older generations, and are beginning to happen quiet frequently. With these constant protests, like the Black Lives Matter Movement and the Anti-Abortion Movement, comes the ever present issue of violence and non-violence, and whether violence in protests is beneficial or completely unnecessary. In order for a protest to be effective, a non-violence approach is necessary, because violence diverts attention away from the main claims of the social protests themselves. Violence can be defined in many different ways. The Oxford Dictionary defines violence to be “behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something”. However, I don’t necessarily agree with this definition entirely. I believe violence is a combination of acts against someone or something that induces physical, mental, and emotional pain and suffering. This means that violence doesn’t always have to be physical. Violence can be abusive words and threats, that used consistently can harmfully damage someone’s mentality and emotions. In many instances where violence in protests have occurred, physical force is usually the main source
It’s hard to make people listen. It’s hard to make people want change. And using violence brings a bad reputation to what one is trying to bring attention to. Thus, peaceful protesting and civil disobedience are important tools to positively impact a free society. Accepting the consequences of civil disobedience proves to the world that one will sacrifice whatever is necessary to achieve what they are fighting for, which strengthens their message even more.
Peaceful resistance to laws is one of the strongest and most important foundations of a free society. Countless peaceful demonstrations have been led in the history of the United States, with positive outcomes that have helped shape the country.
In the history of mankind, there has been multiple cases of violent and nonviolent opposition. The question is which of these is more appealing than the other. In violent protest, citizens protest against their opposition with violence such as; rioting, vandalizing, arson, assault, and many other forms of violence. In nonviolent protest citizens will protest their opposition peacefully through calm and non-violent protest. This is also known as civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the most efficient form of protest in a society.
Peaceful protest leads to both positive and negative impacts on a free society. The main issue of the society isn't just people making bold moves like these, it has to do with people being able to accept them and not deal with it in a violent way, thinking that, that is acceptable and going to solve anything, when it really make it
Throughout history, there have been many unfair rules all over the world. There are people who like the rules and people who dislike the rules. Sometimes everybody dislikes the rule and wants change in them. Whenever there is a request of change of the government, the people find many solutions/methods to make the change. One of the solutions is protesting and this method is commonly used for a change. There are two types of protests, violence, and nonviolence. One example of a violent protest is the Birmingham Civil Rights Protest in 1963 and an example of a nonviolent protest is Gandhi’s nonviolent protest for independence. It is believable that nonviolent protest if the most effective way to protest for society because it leaves a great
The history of American, non violent, civil disobedience depicts how peaceful resistance can shape public opinion, voice dissent, and change unjust laws. In both Contemporary and past history do we see the role that protest has on our Democracy,and how dissenters, such as Susan B Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr, can become American heroes. The United States was founded on an act of civil disobedience, and even in Modern America, principled dissent has become the highest form of
As more people are exposed to the arguments of these protesters, pressure mounds onto the government to see the problem and respond to it. In fact, in the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. stated that “not … a single gain in civil rights [was made] without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.” Additionally, these individuals are not negatively affecting society because they express the utmost respect for the law and advocate for change peacefully while fully accepting the consequences of their actions. They risk enduring denunciation by the media and being labeled as radicals by others. King describes the process of a nonviolent campaign in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.” The self-purification aspect of the nonviolent campaign emphasized an acceptance of the consequences that come with breaking the law such as “[accepting] blows without retaliating” and “[enduring] the ordeals of jail.” The right to peaceful protest respectfully allows these individuals to express their concerns and influence other people with their ideas.
Protests riots in the United States has proven to an issue for both the country’s financial strength and the unity of the nation. With the presence of social injustices, combined with the increased impact of social media propaganda, protests riots are beginning to reach an all time high. Protest riots destroy individual communities and businesses, jeopardizes the safety of others and taints the protest’s cause by resorting to civil disobedience. Action must be done in order to prevent these random acts of violence from continuing after every social hot topic. The goal is not to prevent citizens from protesting; in fact, this should be encouraged. The goal is to change the way the protests are handled from both the citizens and authority perspectives, in order to prevent these protests from escalating into something dangerous.
America is a country that has been ominous as nation that was openly discriminating against the African-American community. The subject on what is deemed right or just was a controversial topic throughout history, mostly in regards to the black community. Peaceful protesting pertains to the setup of a just law and the emphasis in Martin Luther King Jr, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson opinions has shown that nonviolent protest is moral and highly effective.
The battle against injustice has happened throughout history many times, but the decisions on how we as people, or a nation, take action on the matter that creates a message across the world. During the Civil Rights Movement, the tactic of non-violence was used as a tool by the leaders, most used by Martin Luther King Jr. Some of the nonviolence acts that Jr. used as tools were petitions, speeches, art, and marches. These acts were not used to create brawls among people, but rather to create peace. The ‘weapons’ used crafted symbolic actions that showed the disapproval of the group trying to diminish segregation. During
The idea of civil disobedience is one that has fascinated human beings and American culture specifically for generations. The idea of brave men and women going beyond the bounds of the law to fight whatever injustice stands in their path is one that has been frequently romanticized. However, today many are beginning to become disillusioned with the idea of civil disobedience, questioning whether or not today’s social activists are capable of any real change, as many issues such as widespread poverty or race relations seem to go unredressed. The distinction between the political protests in history that are idealized and those seen today which seem relatively ineffective is simply the ability to communicate. Movements that effectively communicate
In today's society, the foundation of civil uprisings have been constructed on the principles of both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.. Even though we are in the 21st century and have overcome numerous events, today we are still fighting the obstacles that both these men had fought during their lifetime. Unfortunately, equality for everyone is still not a concept that has been reached in America, but due to innumerous protests many great outcomes have risen. Both Gandhi and King fabricated a method of non-violent protesting that only benefits the protestors because they give authority no reason to intervene. If authority was interfere against the protest, then the cause would rise in popularity and aggrandize. Although this type of
Well taking a look at events like the Greensboro 1976 KKK protest where after violent altercations between the marchers and members of the KKK hate group, the white supremacist group pulled guns and shot and killed five very important marchers consisting of nurse and civil rights activist, Sandi Smith, Doctor James Walker, Doctor Michael Nathan, and Bill Sampson, a Harvard graduate. Not only did both groups loss, the whole nation loss that day. So although nonviolent protest are not always effective they either impact the whole nation for the better or they only impact few people but violent attacks such as the Paris attack recently, or the 911 terrorist attack they impact so many people, so many households and maybe even the person that would
Violent protest is divisive - it turns citizens away from seeing reason in your stance, costs taxpayers money for police protection and control and drives people strongly to one side or the other of the issues protested. The reason that protests are often seen as dangerous is because they can turn sour as the result of people using this power and ability to demonstrate as a reason to injure and destroy, often without any connection to the original protested topic. Protesters have been known to break shop windows, throw bricks at cars and even injure or kill one another in extreme situations. Peacekeepers attempting to protect the citizens and prevent escalation are often vilified and presented as brutalizing peaceful protesters.
Some people believe that violent protest do not promote change. They believe that it is just a way for the protesters to get on tv.