Hannah Arendt Center presents:
Tough Talks: Against Nonviolence with Vicky Osterweil
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Online Event
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
This event occurred on:
Tue. February 16, 6 pm – 8 pm
Vicky Osterweil is a writer, editor and agitator based in Philadelphia. Her first book, In Defense of Looting, was released in August 2020 by Bold Type Books. Her work has appeared in Real Life, The New Inquiry, Al-Jazeera America, Dissent, The Baffler and The Paris Review.
Vicky Osterweil is a writer, editor and agitator based in Philadelphia. Her first book, In Defense of Looting, was released in August 2020 by Bold Type Books. Her work has appeared in Real Life, The New Inquiry, Al-Jazeera America, Dissent, The Baffler and The Paris Review.
The civil rights movement stands out as a bright, beautiful, all-too-brief moment of hope and struggle in American history, one whose tactics, strategies and meanings are invaluable to those who wish to understand how change is made. However, why is it drilled into our heads, from grade school onward, that the civil rights movement was victorious because it was nonviolent?
In this talk I will discuss how an appealingly simple narrative--that there was the good, successful, nonviolent civil rights movement in the South, which in the late sixties gave way to a misguided, violent northern Black Power aftermath--shapes not only our understanding of that period but also our perspectives on modern social movement activity in America. The division between nonviolence and militancy did not exist until the Civil Rights Movement, but has been used ever since to divide and defang movements for change.
However, a growing consensus among historians of the period is that a simply non-violent civil rights movement never existed, that even at its height, non-violence was seen as one tactic among many, often combined with the use of guns and militant self-defense. The acceptance and reification of non-violence as the only viable mode of protest has more to do with protecting the status quo and white supremacy than honoring the civil rights movement.
Further, non-violence is a fundamentally incoherent and vague way of thinking about liberation, abolition or revolution. The talk will suggest that we reject this ideological way of thinking about struggle, as it limits our ability to imagine and fight for freedom, while putting the moral burden of systems of violence and oppression on the backs of those who resist and fight back against that violence.
We can and must think more clearly and bravely about what change means and requires.
Hannah Arendt Center is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: My MeetingTough Talks: Against Nonviolence with Vicky Osterweil
Time: Feb 16, 2021 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
However, a growing consensus among historians of the period is that a simply non-violent civil rights movement never existed, that even at its height, non-violence was seen as one tactic among many, often combined with the use of guns and militant self-defense. The acceptance and reification of non-violence as the only viable mode of protest has more to do with protecting the status quo and white supremacy than honoring the civil rights movement.
Further, non-violence is a fundamentally incoherent and vague way of thinking about liberation, abolition or revolution. The talk will suggest that we reject this ideological way of thinking about struggle, as it limits our ability to imagine and fight for freedom, while putting the moral burden of systems of violence and oppression on the backs of those who resist and fight back against that violence.
We can and must think more clearly and bravely about what change means and requires.
Hannah Arendt Center is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: My MeetingTough Talks: Against Nonviolence with Vicky Osterweil
Time: Feb 16, 2021 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 867 7399 4584
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,86773994584# US (New York)
+13017158592,,86773994584# US (Washington DC)
Dial by your location
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 867 7399 4584
Find your local number: https://bard.zoom.us/u/kbObPHyGe
Join by SIP
86773994584@zoomcrc.com
Join by H.323
162.255.37.11 (US West)
162.255.36.11 (US East)
115.114.131.7 (India Mumbai)
115.114.115.7 (India Hyderabad)
213.19.144.110 (Amsterdam Netherlands)
213.244.140.110 (Germany)
103.122.166.55 (Australia)
149.137.40.110 (Singapore)
64.211.144.160 (Brazil)
69.174.57.160 (Canada)
207.226.132.110 (Japan)
Meeting ID: 867 7399 4584