For some reason, white people (I know, I know, #not all white people, but for your sake and my blood pressure's sake, PLEASE don't go there) like to think that they know blah people and blah history so well and they forget that Wikipedia is their friend.
Otherwise, they would be able to make the distinction between "nonviolence" (a personal practice) and "nonviolent resistance or nonviolent disobedience" a method and technique of achieving goals.
White folks sure like to call for us blah folks to be "nonviolent" but seem to think that we come by practicing techniques of nonviolent resistance naturally, even and especially as white folks attack black folks violently and repeatedly.
The distinction here is important, in part, because the role of the Nation of Islam in brokering a gang truce in Baltimore in order for unified gangs to kill cops has been brought up.
My own personal philosophies are very far from most things that the Nation of Islam teaches but I will say that I respect them for some of what they do in the community.
And I say pretty much with confidence that with the possible exception of the assassination of El-Hajj Malik Shabazz, I have never known the NOI to be violent in any situation. This Malcolm X quote that has made the round the last few days
is what I understand to be NOI practice.
To be frank with you, on a theoretical level, they probably are justified in going after the cops (as the NOI and others have been at times) but even in those situations, I've always known the NOI to be peaceful.
So as far as nonviolence and nonviolent disobeidence, the only people that white folks need to talk to are the one that they see in the mirror.
Another thing: I have seen far too many nice white progressives justifying their use of the word "thug" by citing the use of the word by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and by President Obama.
I just have to say that it really burns me up when white folks cite their lists of approved negroes to justify saying what they want to say all along but didn't have the courage to say.
In fact, many black people do not approve Of Mayor Rawlings-Blake and President Obama's use of the word even in the context where they may have been trying to use it.
Plus, we blah folks also understand that there are audiences that must be catered to outside of the black community that really want and (it seems) need to hear that word.
Thank you for reading.