Causes Of Civil Disobedience

On August 26th, 2016, 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick gained national attention when he refused to stand for the national anthem in protest of police brutality against black Americans. Many people were angry, feeling that he was disrespecting the country and those who protect it. A maelstrom followed, with news agencies and ordinary American citizens loudly expressing an opinion on his protest. High school students, following Kaepernick’s footsteps, refused to stand at their football games, but schools countered with rules requiring that students stand. As with any publicized issue of this kind, communities were disrupted, causing many to ask if these kinds of protests are even useful. However, while in the short term civil disobedience

Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most famous advocates of civil disobedience, was the victim of six assassination attempts, the final of which ended his life. His main critics were Hindhi fundamentalists, who found his interpretation of Hinduism to be too radical. In Nathuram Godse’s, the man who murdered Gandhi, last speech he believed that Gandhi was “paradoxical… a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and nonviolence.” Godse was frustrated with how Gandhi and his followers, a relatively small group of people, could cause such large changes that affected a whole society. However, now Gandhi is almost universally lauded for his efforts and for his methods of protest, his very title, Mahatma, meaning “Great Soul”. While none would deny that the fight is painful, and for many even deadly, the result of these efforts was a positive, more free

When images of peaceful protesters being hosed down by police on the streets of Birmingham were broadcasted, the public was understandably shocked. It was a visual representation of the figurative violence that black people in America had been experiencing for decades. These symbolic acts on the part of the police were often just as important as the symbolic acts of people like Kaepernick. More recently, the video recordings of police officer Betty Shelby shooting down unarmed black man Terence Crutcher in Tulsa made many Americans privy to the reality of racism in the United States. While Betty’s actions were clearly not intended to be symbolic acts, they have taken on that role in the public conversation and have inspired change by the realities they exposed. Crutcher’s victimhood, represented by him raising his hands in the air as an act of submission, while also not intended to be symbolic, has resonated in the minds of many. In this way, peaceful acts and the violent reactions to them, whether intended or not, uncover the ugly realities of our society. As King pointed out, all minds are capable of changing, but they need to first be faced head on with the truth. Unfortunately, sometimes the most resonant truth comes in peaceful acts being met with horrific