by Kanisha L. Adkins
The Language of the Unheard
America is in the thick of protests and riots — again. Today’s protests and riots have been triggered by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer. On Monday May 25, 2020, Mr. Floyd was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit bill, hand-cuffed and held to the ground, the officer’s knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while Mr. Floyd said, “I can’t breathe”, and ultimately died. Chauvin’s actions, the three additional officers who were present, on duty and watched while Mr. Floyd died, and a 4-day delay to arrest even a single officer involved became the cocktail that led to protests and riots by American citizens taking to the streets because of an age-old problem in America: police brutality aimed at black bodies. And just as the current issues that are at the center of today’s protests and riots are not new, neither are the acts of protest and riot new to America. Every decade, every century of America’s existence has had protests and riots.
America, in fact, had its genesis in acts of protest and riot, with one of the most famous acts of protest and riot being the Boston Tea Party. British settlers in America protested against the British government for establishing laws that had adverse social, financial and political effects on the settlers while simultaneously denying the settlers the right to have a voice in their governance –taxation without representation. This protest had gone on for several years. But on December 16, 1773, the British settlers escalated their voice of protest to include the confiscation and destruction property; tons of tea, a significant source of revenue for the British empire. The British settlers were determined to be heard. So, they protested and rioted!
Today in America, protesters and rioters are demanding to be heard. But let’s be clear! There is a difference between those who loot, and those who protest and riot. Looters are opportunists (as well as provocateur, white supremacist infiltrators). Looters don’t come to the table because they have been oppressed or because their God-given or constitutional rights have been denied. Neither do they come on behalf of those who have been oppressed and whose rights have been denied. Plain and simple, looters are in it for themselves. They have no agenda to benefit the oppressed masses. Their motivation is purely capitalistic with the end game being individual personal gain.
Protesters and rioters, however, don’t enter the room as opportunists at the expense of the oppressed. They are the oppressed and those who partner with and advocate for the oppressed. The difference between the protestor and the rioter is that the protestor engages in methods that are often described as peaceful and organized. Some might even describe their actions as civil. Protestors are embraced and applauded for standing up for what is morally and legally right.
The rioter, on the other hand, engages in methods that are destructive and chaotic. Their actions fall far short of civility. And while the are no apparent reasons to applaud the rioter’s destructive, chaotic behavior, there is every reason to embrace the rioter. But embracing the rioter will call for viewing the rioter through a different lens – a lens which sees the pain that triggers the riot.
On April 14, 1967, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed an assembly at Stanford University in a speech that he titled, The Other America.” In this speech, Dr. King addressed, among many topics, the riots that were happening across the country. He reaffirmed his commitment to non-violence as a more excellent way. But he also expressed compassionate understanding for those protesters who chose to participate in riots:
“I’m still convinced,” he said, “that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice.…But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. (emphasis added) Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.” (emphasis added)
While Dr. King was calling America to task in his day to remedy social and economic injustices, he – a proponent of non-violence – paused to acknowledge and allow the validity of the pain that provokes people to riot. Today, America must be called to task to address the social and economic injustices that still plague our country. This call will not allow America to only negotiate with civil, well-behaved, peaceful protestors. The pain of those whose protest is in the language of riot must also be addressed. And this is not an impossible feat.
How America Handles Pain: A Tale of Two Races
America knows how to address pain. The pharmaceutical industry has made this clear. Over-the-counter (OTC) pain medicines are available from megastores to mom and pop shops. When OTCs are not strong enough, prescription pain medicines are an alternative. And then there are the prescription medicines that are so potent that they are usually only administered when the patient is in a facility and the administration of the medicine must be monitored by medical personnel. America knows how to address pain. But not just physical pain.
America also knows how to address emotional pain. And this is made crystal clear in how America has chosen to handle the prescription opioid epidemic. While prescription opioids, like Vicodin, Dilaudid and Percocet are classified as pain management medicines, they’re also classified as narcotics, which affect the mood.
It’s the mood-altering affect, the high, that’s addictive. It’s the chase for the next high that causes the addicted to commit crimes. The addicted who are chasing the next high of prescription opioids are primarily white and middle class (who are also chasing illicit, illegal non-prescription opioids). But rather than centering on the criminal activity, America has chosen to center on the addiction to prescription opioids as a public health emergency and provide treatment for those who are addicted. America recognized and made the decision to accommodate an addiction — reported primarily among white, middle class people — as a mental health condition that required treatment for the benefit of their emotional well-being. America hasn’t been so generous with Black people.
Case in point: Heroin is an opioid and a narcotic. It’s the mood-altering affect, the high, that’s addictive. It’s the chase for the next high that causes the addicted to commit crimes. But in the 1970s, heroin addiction wasn’t treated as a public health emergency. On the contrary, when heroin was reportedly used more often by young African Americans in urban areas, President Richard Nixon stated that drug abuse was “public enemy number one” and officially declared a War on Drugs. To fight this war, he increased federal funding for drug-control agencies, established the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and proposed strict measures for drug crimes, such as mandatory prison sentencing.
Another case in point: President Ronald Reagan confronted the use of cocaine as criminal activity, not as a public health crisis. Cocaine isn’t an opioid or a narcotic but federal and state drug laws have classified it as a narcotic. It has mood-altering affects and it’s the mood-altering affect, the high, that’s addictive. It’s the chase for the next high that causes the addicted to commit crimes.
President Reagan confronted the use of cocaine as criminal activity by enforcing and strengthening the drug policies established by President Nixon. He implemented longer prison sentences for offenses related to crack cocaine, reportedly used more often by African Americans, in comparison to offenses related to powder cocaine, reportedly used more often by Whites.
Rather than viewing the mood-altering drugs of heroin and crack cocaine as public health emergencies requiring mental health treatment for the benefit of emotional well-being, the use of these drugs was centered on crime and black bodies were policed, prosecuted and punished. Make no mistake about it: America knows how to handle pain. White emotional pain is prioritized. Black emotional pain is criminalized. America has chosen to punish the pain– to silence the language of riot with arrest and incarceration—when what is needed is treatment. Not necessarily mental health treatment but treatment that addresses the source of the pain and not simply the symptoms of the pain. This treatment starts with understanding the language of riot and its source, BLACK PAIN.
Speaking in Tongues
Today’s riots have been triggered by Black Pain. Black Pain is the pain of being labeled as different and less than. It’s the pain of being marginalized and dismissed. It’s the pain of black (and brown) bodies being criminalized and punished. Black Pain is a pain that is universally ignored and selectively unheard. And so, once again, in American society, Black Pain has publicly reached her tipping point and has chosen to express herself in protest and in the language of riot.
Black Pain, expressed in the language of riot, is likely the realization of a sentiment expressed by self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audra Lorde. And that sentiment is that “your silence will not protect you.” Perhaps this sentiment is understood by those who choose the language of riot. And so, they use the language of riot in an effort to break the silence and be heard.
To be heard is a righteous goal. But the language of riot is often judged and condemned. For many, it’s a foreign language, a language of “other.” It’s an unknown tongue. But if anyone is willing and capable of understanding this language, it should be the Church.
Just days ago, the Church assembled herself to celebrate Pentecost—a celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, empowering the young and the old, boys and girls, men and women, to prophecy, dream and see visions, “declaring the mighty works of God.” This was the purpose for the outpouring. The evidence of the outpouring was centered around speaking in tongues, a miracle of language. The Galileans spoke a language that wasn’t their native language. But that was only part one of the miracle. Part two of the miracle was that Jewish people from many nations each heard a language they could understand.
Pentecost has sounded a clarion call to the Church to not simply speak a new language but to hear a new language. Today, in the wake of protests and riots, those who profess to follow Christ must do as pre-school teachers have said for generations: Put on your listening ears. The Church must hear the language of riot, a language which some have chosen in order to give voice to Black Pain. If the Church can only hear the sound of windows being smashed when riots break out, then the Church has a hearing problem.
Understandably, people oppose the destruction of property. But hearing the language of riot isn’t tantamount to condoning property destruction. It is recognizing the need to treat the pain. When Ruhel Islam learned that his Minneapolis restaurant, Ghandi Mahal, had caught fire early Friday morning during the riots, he told a friend, “Let my building burn. Justice needs to be served, put those officers in jail.” Later that day when he saw the damage he said, “A building can be rebuilt but a human life cannot.”
Rev. Dr. William Barber, leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, Moral Mondays, and founder of Repairers of the Breach recently noted, “no one wants to see their community burn. But the fires burning in Minneapolis, just like the fire burning in the spirits of so many marginalized Americans today, are a natural response to the trauma black communities have experienced, generation after generation.”
Taking to heart the words of people like Mr. Islam and Rev. Dr. Barber can help to settle any internal conflict that church folk may have between mourning the loss of a family’s business and mourning the denial of a people’s humanity. It is a matter of prioritizing pain over property. Hearing the language of riot can help the Church lead the charge to eliminate Black Pain. When the Church hears the pain that provokes riots, then she will be able to communicate with those who riot. She will be able to speak in tongues.
Rev. Dr. John W. Kinney, Professor of Systematic Theology at the School of Theology at Virginia Union University and Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in the small community of Beaverdam, Virginia describes speaking in tongues as more than unintelligible sounds. He is known for saying that it is communication that reaches across all characteristics and classifications that could serve to divide people.
In a recent interview Dr. Kinney shared his reflections on how value is often assigned to people based on their appearance and how these assigned values can be divisive. Instead of assigning greater value because of a suit and a tie, he said, we should say, “no matter what your condition, your situation, your existence, you have intrinsic value, worth and dignity. And I will assign that value to you no matter what your [job, color or role.] Even when you’re at your worse… I have the capacity to encourage you to your best.”
To acknowledge intrinsic value, worth and dignity, and to encourage — even those who riot — to their best: this is what the Church can and will do when it hears those who have not been heard.
No portion of this commentary may be duplicated in writing or in any other recorded format without permission.
Copyright © 2020 by Kanisha L. Adkins
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