Friends,

Over the last few days, I have been trying to think about how I can make the most of my privileges, and in addition to donating, I felt that I could make a serious attempt at constructing a reading list that might underpin some of the discourse surrounding Black Lives Matter and the ongoing riots in Minneapolis and across the country.

Having had the unique privilege of studying African American studies and sociology, I will try to cover a small section of academic literature related to riots and conflict with which I’m familiar. The majority, but not all, of the texts are grounded in the fields of African American/Diaspora studies and/or sociology. The focus of this list will be on riots, notions of civility, and the sociological determinants of conflict. In the coming days, I will try to build a more comprehensive reading list on other subjects, including: Black and Asian American solidarity, African Diaspora studies, Black feminism, Black queer theory, etc. For those, I will definitely be reaching out to friends for help; please also reach out to me if you’d like to work together. My friend June Kitahara also has a reading list titled “Educate Ourselves So Black People Don’t Have To” that you can access here. Thank you, June.

For this list, the format will be as follows: name, followed by a download link or article link, followed by a brief description of what the argument is. Time is a precious commodity right now, so I hope this helps. Additionally, most of the selected readings are not very long (<10 pages). Please also feel free to message me to ask for a source on any related topics you might be interested in. I would be happy to dig through old course readings or outsource questions to more knowledgeable colleagues. You can say anything from “what’s x book where they talk about y again?” to “what are more texts about z?” My email is awang5109@gmail.com, or if you prefer more expedient communication, @andrwwang.

Finally, this list will continue to evolve based on a number of factors: recognizing my own biases and epistemological shortcomings, recommendations from you, and updates on current events. Indeed, the way I’ve built this list is by thinking about what texts I would draw on if asked to debate rioting and looting with someone who disagrees with me. But I could very well be wrong as well. And, as always, I am open to discussing any thoughts you may have, especially if you are in disagreement with the ideas expressed in the texts.

If you’ve found this list useful in some way, and have the means, please consider donating to the variety of organizations doing invaluable work to support protestors and Black lives. Some are below. And a quick thank you to the brilliant minds in the department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia, the department of Africana Studies at the Claremont Colleges, and organizers of the movement for Black lives for introducing me to these texts.

Places to donate: Minnesota Freedom Fund (https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/donate) | Black Visions Collective (https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2) | George Floyd Memorial Fund (https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd) | Reclaim the Block (https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2) | Equal Justice Initiative (https://eji.org)  

List of bail funds: https://bailfunds.github.io/

In Solidarity.

Civility and Conflict Reading List (Will be continuously updated)

Last update: 5/31 7 PM -- added “Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto”

To be added: sources that comment on how some are rioting/looting for personal gain/fun, or to incite police violence against protestors

“I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.” - MLK

Civility in the City by Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou

Journal Article: “Constructing Race and Civility in Urban America”

Link: https://gofile.io/d/Gfj270

Despite media portrayals of life in Black, urban communities as perpetually in conflict or violent, sociological research shows that civility is actually the norm in these communities. It is social order, not disorder, that actors are actively invested in maintaining. Previous research has been good at showing why structural conditions like constant poverty, unemployment, social and economic inequality encourage riots. But they don’t explain why there is often an absence of conflict. By understanding the real interactional dynamics of communities, the escalation from civility into large scale conflicts like riots can be better understood.

Political Rioting: A Moral Assessment by Avia Pasternak

Link: https://gofile.io/d/Vxz5jP

Beginning with a brief account of Freddie Gray’s death, Pasternak addresses the recent waves of riots that have been ignited by police brutality and racism, and challenges the perception that rioters should be punished morally and legally. She defines these rioters as “political rioters,” or “agents who resort to violence in response to social or economic injustice, and who communicate anger and defiance of the law.” She sets clear criteria for how riots should be evaluated for their moral worth, and shows how they can be justified in and valuable to a democracy.

Civility is Overrated by Adam Serwer

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/adam-serwer-civility/600784/

A 2019 article in The Atlantic about how civility is used as a tool to stagnate social change. Serwer talks about how the notion of civility, after the Civil War, was restored using white supremacist rule. There’s a great line in here about how MLK once said, “there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.” Serwer responds, “Americans should not fear that form of tension. They should fear its absence.”

Where Have All the Rioters Gone? by Matthew Desmond

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/matthew-desmond-riots/552542/

Another article in The Atlantic about how, from one perspective, riots should have actually happened sooner given that black unemployment, evictions, and poverty have risen (the ubiquitous structural factors that Lee talks about). He points to structural conditions, such as mass incarceration, nonprofit bureaucracy that treats people as clients (who wait their turn) rather as citizens (who can demand their rights), and suburbanization/white flight, as reasons why riots have gone down and individuals have acquiesced. “Cities should be exploding--but they aren’t.”

The African Roots of War by W.E.B. Du Bois

Link: https://gofile.io/d/3r5nAE

Du Bois is speaking of the colonial and imperial domination of Africa by Europe as a kind of war that has continued on despite more overt forms of violence disappearing at the time of writing (1915). And that it is this war--the competition for the colonies by European states--that helped motivate World War I. Ultimately, Du Bois rejects kumbaya as a sufficient solution to what he calls “world-dominion” by the Europeans. On one hand, I included this because it shows how conflicts in world history have been motivated by the desire to loot and steal and exploit Black countries. On the other hand, while Black countries today are blamed for conflicts, they trace their origins to European greed.

I Write Where I Like by Steve Biko

Link: https://gofile.io/d/CUN8Pu

(Note: the pages I am referring to begin on Chapter 14, a few pages down from where the PDF begins)

Steve Biko is considered to be one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement that grew out of South Africa during the time of apartheid. Here, he is writing about how liberalism has allowed for apartheid to continue in South Africa. He notes that in response to apartheid, white liberals have theorized the response of “non-racialism.” But he argues that non-racialism is not the true opposite of apartheid--it is a “watered-down truth”--because apartheid is actually white racial domination. If white racial domination is what apartheid truly is, then the opposite of that is racial solidarity among Blacks.

I’ve included this text because I was absolutely blown away by the simplicity and elegance of his argument. This text is ultimately about conflict, but in a more philosophical sense: theorizing social change as the result of *truly* opposing forces. In other words, when we talk about solving conflicts, we have to be real about what the problem is, so that we can theorize the opposite, which will then lead us towards a solution.

Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto by Tommie Shelby

Note: this is the journal article by Shelby as I couldn’t find the full print book. But if someone finds it please let me know and I will upload it. The full book is called “Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform.”

Link: https://gofile.io/d/Fmfwpd

Shelby uses the framework of a “nonideal political theory” to evaluate how we should think of the ghetto’s poor. This is part of what he calls “the theory of justice that specifies how we should respond to or rectify injustice.” A point he makes that I liked is on page 156: that riots manifest when the ghetto poor decide to engage in “spontaneous rebellion” as a means of addressing their overwhelming frustrations. Although this is sometimes politically ineffective, it may be key to self-respect. Furthermore, it need not always be done to change the social order, but can represent opportunism within a social order that provides little to no opportunity under conditions of civility.

Another note on Shelby from my dear friend Robert Rush: “When police officers (enforcers of the state) unlawfully kill citizens, they have broken both the human contract and the contract between citizen and state. And in response the citizens have a right NOT to abide by state sanctions (e.g. don’t loot).”

To add when I get back from my run:

Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams (New York: Routledge, ).

Tommie Shelby, “The Philosopher King”