Black Lives Matter: Philadelphia Super Bowl Riots Reaction Glaring Example of White Privilege

[malthaussen]

88. My thoughts: it's a stretch.

I'll stipulate that sports riots (or "celebrations," if you will) are treated differently from demonstrations for civil rights. But I don't think that the core of this different treatment is racism, although racism may be an incidental component, when it is a racial minority protesting for civil rights.

My take is that sports disturbances are not seen as any threat to underlying order, whereas demonstrations for rights are. I might even argue that sports disturbances are seen as permissible because they reinforce the underlying order, by allowing fans to blow off steam, but I won't pursue that point here, as it is tangential. But demonstrations for rights, be they 1968 Chicago-style protests, or Standing Rock style protests, or Black Lives Matter style protests, are always seen by authority as a threat that must be suppressed.

But participants in both styles of "disorderly conduct" are always of mixed races and genders, which lead me to conclude that racism is not the primary motivation in the reaction to them. However, it can always be used when expedient -- on both sides of the question, of course.

-- Mal