Violence Is Never the Answer? Really?

“Violence is never the answer.”

I see that shit a lot, a lot all over the internet. Usually posted or shared by well-meaning white people men, who have the privilege of never having had their mere existence challenged.

But all it really takes is a cursory understanding of history to realize what a bullshit stance that is. The United States wouldn’t even exist without violence. And that’s not even getting into how the colonizers used violence to steal the continent in the first place.

Yesterday was VE Day. Do you really think the Allies would have gained that victory without violence? Come on now.

So when I read the news about a Black father killing a cop the day after his son was killed by a cop, my first thought was, honestly, surprise that it’s taken this long. The sort of violence that took his son from this world is as old as the United States itself. The images of that father in court, surrounded by cops trying to mad-dog him, made me feel a kind of way. He kept his head up and met …