Original Post:

Let us not look upon the acts of looting and vandalism with myopia. People don’t become desperate overnight. Without consideration for all the historical sociocultural and political factors, we can’t possibly appreciate the actions of an individual no matter how off putting it may seem to us.

 

Response from somebody on LI:

You can protest AND be respectful to people, property, & life. It’s not an either/or proposition. Let’s not excuse or justify violence. You can’t say war is bad and then cause death and destruction on your fellow citizens in the name of protesting. It’s wrong, morally, and ethically. Honoring George Floyd does not include killing police officers and destroying a perfect strangers business.

 

My Reply:

I’m not certain you fully appreciated my belief. I understand your concern as you see my post as giving permission to behave poorly. I’d like to suggest that condoning a behavior is not the same thing as understanding behavior. I wasn’t suggesting that looting is bad or good as binary thinking and labeling behavior can actually service to polarize us further. Instead of dichotomous thinking, let us be investigative with a lens of curiosity and empathy. What leads a person or persons to act without morality or empathy? This is not an easy question to answer but is imperative for problem solving. If a person with an eating disorder is binging and purging, certainly we can agree these actions are unhealthy to the body. We aren’t going to solve the problem by telling them they have done something wrong. They already know their behavior is deleterious so shaming them or punishing them only widens the gap and may further isolates them or even reinforces their desperation.

The paradoxical theory of change tells us the only way to truly change a behave in a sustainable way is by deeply considering the etiology of that behavior. Looting and rioting are not simple behaviors to be solved through judgment. They result from a complex set of conditions and dynamics that unless well understood, will be reinforced through our confirmation bias. We know they are not constructive so what good does it do to berate instead of truly solving the issue with deep understanding. Punishment is proven to be a poor long term solution to complex behavioral change. We can’t risk further stratification of our society through wagging our fingers at the other side, whomever they may be. Real healing is only made through contact, putting ourselves into the experience of those who don’t easily understand.

Opportunistic, desperate, or indiscriminate behavior can be so involved it could take years of unravelling to truly assess. Were there needs consistently met growing up? Did they learn to view the world as unfair putting them into survival mode? Did they veer from inclusive to exclusive aggression because they were perpetually injured psychologically? Do they lack opportunity to get their wants and needs consistently met? Has hope been depleted by continuous oppression? Have their communities been neglected to the point where they have lost faith in society or witnessed years of institutional racism our own national leaders fail to acknowledge? Have they been victims of perpetual chronic and acute trauma? Have the historical injustices of inequality, inequity, and dis-investment stolen their care for law and order? Has their education been so lacking in quality they are living without the belief their conditions will improve? Has their development of moral reasoning been interrupted by incredulity over one police brutality after another with no consequences? Have they witnessed so much racist, prejudice and segregation that they are just acting out the culmination of their disgust?

Until we are ready to truly understand the effects of enslaving an entire population and the long term impacts on an entire race, including the more current exploitation and degradation like Black Wall Street and other government sanctioned public lynchings, I wouldn’t begin to judge the actions of a single African American… because let us be honest, we are calling out African Americans. While all color and SES groups have contributed to the less peaceful protests, this is deep down a matter of stereotyping. We blame black people because it is easy, because we are afraid to lean into our discomfort and explore the differences that keep us divided.

So I do not excuse or justify violence, I put on my social psychology hat and say it’s a moral imperative for all of us, if not simply a matter of practicality, to understand why peaceful protest has fringes of greater extremism. Until we are willing to do that, to put away our indignance and look through a lens of objectivity, we will continue to see the same iterations of turbulence in our society.