On The Riots: An FAQ

What the fuck, bro?

Summer’s here, and the time is right.

There’s a riot goin’ on!

Several. “Multiple” would probably be the correct descriptor. Verging on “nationwide.”

What the fuck, bro?

You gonna ask decent questions or just be a sausagehead?

I don’t know. Let’s find out. Why is everyone rioting?

There’s a very simple cause.

What?

The entire history of America.

Well, now who’s being the sausagehead?

I’m serious. In 1684, a ship named the Isabella brought 150 Africans to Philadelphia, where they were sold into slavery. These men and women were a new legal class on the continent. The law applied to them, but did not protect them. What were rights for most were, for them, privileges to be extended or denied by whim: the right to travel, speak, use facilities, etc. And you could murder them for any old reason. “Didn’t know his place” was a perfectly acceptable basis upon which to murder someone.

That sounds unfair.

It was! Completely! Even a second’s thought about the matter will reveal the viciously stupid and counterproductive bullshit at its core.

South Africa was bad, too.

Don’t do that. Anyway: the population group that descended from those original 150 Africans, plus all the descendants of the thousands of boats that followed, were–in a haphazard, halting, and patchy way–eventually granted full citizen’s rights.

So everything should be fine.

“Should” is the saddest word in the English language.

It seemed too easy.

We now have to recognize the difference between de jure and de facto. The former phrase means “how things are according to the law;” the latter means “how things actually is.” The de jure speed limit on the highway is 65, but the de facto speed limit–the one everyone obeys–is around 80. De jure, black folks were allowed to take the bus. De facto: in the back, obviously. De jure: every American child has the right to a high-quality education. De facto: Schools are funded from local property taxes, which were low in black neighborhoods due to their neighborhoods being kept deliberately shitty via a conspiracy between the government and the banks.

You’re a conspiracy guy now?

Google “redlining.”

…

That’s fucked up.

Super fucked up. And also the ruling class demanded to maintain the right to murder an African at any time.

What now?

In their defense, the ruling class did give in to demands that the murderer be wearing the magic clothes.

I repeat: what now?

If you want to kill a black person for no reason, you have to be wearing the magic clothes. Funny-looking hat, blue shirt with a star-shaped piece of jewelry on the breast. Big belt. Pervert boots.

You’re talking about cops.

I am. I don’t wanna discount the progress society has made, though. It is now illegal for, like, 99% of the population to murder a black person. You might only get probation, but you’re gonna get in trouble. But for cops? Legal as a beagle, baby. You just had to be a little discreet about it. Bad idea to do it too publicly, or to murder a beloved black person, but you could absolutely shoot a random guy named Leroy and no one would give a shit except Leroy’s family. They’d be fucking devastated, but it probably wouldn’t even make the paper.

You’re describing a society rotten to its core.

Yes! “How white people treat black people” is America’s original sin and festering wound. The “bad apple” analogy works so many ways here.

So the cops killed a guy?

Murdered.

What’s the difference?

One could be an accident, the other is kneeling on a guy’s neck for nine minutes.

Oh, God. How could you do that to another human being?

By possessing a depraved indifference to that human’s life. Oh, and: three other cops stood and watched.

I see what you mean about the “bad apples” thing now.

It explains both the macro and the micro of this situation.

How did this tragic series of events come to be known to the public?

There’s a video.

Like Rodney King.

A little different.

How so?

The Rodney King cops didn’t know they were being filmed. This guy looks right in the camera.

He knew he was being recorded and still kept his knee on the guy’s neck?

George Floyd. His name was George Floyd. And: yeah.

That’s fucked up.

Immensely so.

Is that why people are rioting?

Not quite. A bunch of other dominos had to fall for the Target to get looted. First, the city of Minneapolis had to pretend the murder didn’t happen. Then, when informed “Hey, one of your employees just windpiped a guy,” the city had to not arrest the cop. And then it had to come out that the cop is, like, the most racist cop that ever lived. Like, if you were writing a Hollywood movie about a racist cop, you would not make that character as racist as the actual cop who murdered the guy because people would not believe it. A cop that racist would surely get fired the movie-going public would say to themselves.

Those are specific steps.

And then keep not arresting the cop.

Is the video’s provenance in dispute? Could it be a deep fake?

No.

Is it blurry and individuals cannot be positively identified?

Clear as a mountain stream, and well-framed.

So why has the cop not been arrested yet?

GOOD QUESTION, MUCHCHO?

Still? Still with the muchacho?

It’s my thing, man.

So what’s happening?

Mob rules, baby. For a crowd to exist, you have to assemble a group of people. The raw numbers don’t matter; what does is the density. The space has to be about 80% full. Shoulder-to-shoulder type situation. Then a focus. A crowd without a focus is merely a collection of individuals. A collective unconscious must be formed. If the focus amuses the crowd, they become an audience. If the focus angers the crowd, it becomes the mob. This is human nature. But the nature of a riot is cultural.

Explain.

There are two types of riots: sudden and simmering. The first is apolitical, and can be started rather easily. Axl Rose used to do it all the time. If you rile a bunch of drunk idiots up, they’ll start breaking shit. Remember 10-cent Beer Night? Simplest thing in the world to start a sudden riot.

And the second type?

Is the simmering riot. These are invariably political, and occur when an underclass snaps after decades of mistreatment. Occasionally, you will hear of a “riot” perpetrated by the ruling class, such as the Tulsa Riot or the Elaine Race Riot. These are not riots. They are massacres. Riots go up.

And what causes the underclass to snap?

You can only have someone’s knee on your neck for so long.

Will the revolution be televised?

Everything else is nowadays.