Titles...

[MrScorpio]

[tblue37]

1. K&R. nt

[greyl]

2. Weak.

That picture misrepresents the controversy by exaggeration, plus feeds into a false narrative that protestors = violent criminals.

The controversy isn't about peaceful demonstrators being called thugs.

[MrScorpio]

3. .

[greyl]

4. That one's strong - it actually makes sense under scrutiny.

Your pic in the OP didn't offend my moral sense, if that's what you're implying.

edit: I'm also not saying that swapping in a photo of 2015 looting would fix the picture. I'm saying the whole concept behind it is faulty.
(White people weren't the only ones protesting in DC in 1965, right? Weren't there violent demonstrations in the 60s in which people were called thugs?)

edit 2: additionally, the famous flower pic is from 1967. It is DC, though.
http://www.marcriboud.com/marcriboud/accueil.html

Where did you get the OP pic?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. "Weren't there violent demonstrations in the 60s in which people were called thugs?"

No. They were called "hippie freaks".

[greyl]

20. Watch Berkeley in the Sixties to refresh your memory of the variety of protests.

Bobby Seale:

"I was never interested in an isolationist black nationalist movement," says the now 77-year-old Seale, who worked for the city of Oakland and served in the Army before becoming an activist. He was among those interviewed for the play and saw it performed in Ashland. "Ronald Reagan called me a hoodlum and a thug, but what I stood for was social justice, voter registration and power to the people, all the people, black, blue or polka-dotted."
http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_26719757/party-people-brings-dawn-black-panthers-berkeley

Seale said that as early as 2005, far as I can tell: http://m.semissourian.com/story/155595.html
Of course people were calling "law enforcement" officers jack booted thugs back then, too. It was going both ways.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. If you were talking about "thug" in general....

It wasn't a label associated with flower children though.

[greyl]

33. I like what Mfume said at the end of a CNN clip about this topic.

Frustrated with CNN giving airtime to the "thug" word controversy, Kweisi said it was a distraction from the stuff people should be focusing on, and he tried to bring the conversation back to poverty, bad cops, etc.

[NaturalHigh]

9. I usually avoid quoting...

convicted murderers on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.

[MrScorpio]

13. Frankly, the FBI can go fuck itself

Along with its long held campaign of political oppression in this country.

[Tom Ripley]

19. +1000

[NaturalHigh]

10. "The controversy isn't about peaceful demonstrators being called thugs."

Exactly. People are guaranteed the right to protest under our Constitution's First Amendment. They aren't guaranteed the right to riot and loot.

[MrScorpio]

14. This is America

The powers that be have been arresting and murdering peaceful protestors since day one.

How about a little sympathy for black rage?

[Ms. Toad]

16. Yes, but it is not the peaceful ones being called thugs.

The ones being called thugs are the ones committing crimes.

That's where the analogy breaks down.

[MrScorpio]

18. It doesn't take a lot to classify someone as a criminal

Baltimore filled its jails up with people who committed no crime at all, many weren't even charged.

What's broken down is our society. This uprising is the result. If there was no breakdown to begin with, the uprising and everything that came with it wouldn't have occurred.

These are people who are sick and tired of suffering in silence.

[greyl]

23. Where did you get your OP image? nt

[MrScorpio]

25. Tumblr. nt

[greyl]

28. Put it back!

Looks like something a right-wing troll would create to make people look silly for spreading it, imo.
The incorrect date(at least one) is the clincher, for me.

[Ms. Toad]

31. No one is calling those folks thugs.

The ones being called thugs are the ones who broke into stores and stole things, set cars on fire, set stores on fire, etc.

If you want to be honest about your pictorial analogy, the last people should include an image of someone engaged in the activities for which they are being called thugs.

[Cheese Sandwich]

5. This is a very thought provoking group of images...

Probably each one of those people was slandered by the dominant system in their own society.

Right now the so-called "thugs" are being slandered. But their struggle is for freedom and justice. I think the day will come when people look back at many of them as freedom fighters.

[merrily]

6. The first three are true. Not taking anything from them. The fouth is heartbreaking.

[greyl]

22. If by "true" you mean "false", then yes.

(Date on first photo is false)

[gollygee]

24. The date was off by 2 years

The context doesn't change. Not sure why you're so focused on a mistake in the date?

[greyl]

34. It's a world famous photo,

and I'd bet a troll created the image in the OP.

[merrily]

32. I meant that all four photos depict brave acts.

I didn't even notice a date

[greyl]

35. Right, that's what people are supposed to notice,

at first glance.

[Gothmog]

8. K&R

[brooklynite]

11. UNREC

The word "thug" has not been applied to all protestors (certainly not by the Mayor or the President); it has been applied to the looters and the arsonists.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Yup.

It's remarkable about how many DUers fail to see the racial issue here because "race" (most notably, the "black race&quot and racism doesn't matter, is old-timey, and only happened "in the past", so it's not a factor in what is going on today and how it is being interpreted and labeled.

[Cheese Sandwich]

15. People don't see we are living in an oppressive system.

They know it has problems, but they don't see it as a totally rotten system of institutional racism, oppression and exploitation.

Like you said, people think those days are in the past, but clearly we are still living through it.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. What is interesting was the Angela Davis interview

from 1972 that was posted here - http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017262429

And I found and posted the video of a panel discussion that she was just in a couple months ago where she commented on that 1972 interview, and compared to where things stand today.

I.e., some things have changed, but whole lot has not. That is what is meant by "institutionalized" and "systemic"... and IMHO, a lot of it has to do with sociological issues. I remember way long time ago taking a course on "Sociology of the American Society" (or similarly named) and it was eye-opening in terms of pointing out the building of the framework for what we saw happen in the past and what was happening at the time - when Reagan first got elected (late '70s/early '80s when I took the course) and what would happen in the future (which is our now).

[KittyWampus]

21. Nobody calls peaceful protestors "thugs". Why didn't you use this photo in the bottom right?

The looters and brick throwers took the spotlight away from the courageous protestor you showed on the bottom right.


It's one thing to point out the pent up energy and what happens when dreams are deferred.

It's another to be dishonest and deny the obvious.

I don't use the word "thug" anyway. But your graphic is misleading.

[Cheese Sandwich]

27. Why would it be any better to call those kids thugs?

[KittyWampus]

29. I didn't make the graphic in the OP which uses that term.

[derby378]

26. That guy in Baltimore is a hero in my eyes

Not many people can stand up in the face of oppression like that. I salute him.

[Scurrilous]

36. K & R