More on Riots in Toledo Ohio USA

Pat comments on my post about Riots in Toledo Ohio USA

"The fears of white people has been stoked by the Nazis when they got the black residents to riot."

Douglas, are you suggesting that the responsibility for rioting by black gangs is with the dozen whites who marched in protest over black gangs?

The simple answer is yes and no. The complexity comes from the existence of the racist society in which this event occurred, and from the responsibility of individuals for their actions. If it was reasonable to expect that a march by Nazis through a black neighbourhood would cause a riot, then responsibility for that riot lies with the organisers of the march. Also the members of that neighbourhood could have chosen other ways to protest or stop the march. The problem is that I do not know what options the African-Americans had available to them. They may have tried other methods before without success.

These actions do not occur in a vacuum: there is a historical and political context here of the miasma of racism. A racist society is not a natural state of affairs. It has to be continually maintained and enhanced to keep control of society. The Nazis are not the prime drivers behind racism: they are merely the supporting cast. The real culprits are all those 'nice' people in business suits, wigs, academic gowns, and tweed jackets as they make decisions about who gets hired, who gets gaoled, who gets educated, and whose point of view gets written.

The article has since been updated and is now called Neighbors defend protest over neo-Nazi march which has the following

Much of the anger boiled over because people were upset that city leaders were willing to allow the [white] supremacists to walk through the [African-American] neighborhood and shout insults, residents and authorities said.

"You can’t allow people to come challenge a whole city and not think they weren’t going to strike back," said Kenneth Allen, 47, who watched the violence begin near his home.

...

[Police Chief Mike] Navarre said the riots escalated because members of the National Socialist Movement took their protest to the neighborhood, which is predominantly black, instead of a neutral place. "If this march had occurred in downtown Toledo, we wouldn’t have had the unrest," he said.

...

Neighbors were divided about the city allowing the march.

"They don’t have the right to bring hate to my front yard," said Terrance Anderson, who lives near a bar that was destroyed.

Other neighbors said the group had a right to have their say. "Too bad the people couldn’t ignore them," said Dee Huntley.

Emphasis Mine

I gather that some of the residents and the police thought that the actions of the Nazis were provocative.

Pat's question also brings out the circularity of racism: non-whites reacting to whites reacting to non-whites .... The real culprits in this case is the 'liberal media' who published the stories about the black gangs in the first place.

The real challenge for us is to break out of this circle of hate.