STRATEGY // NONVIOLENCE
Reclaiming NonViolence in the Age of Antiracism
by John Wood, Jr.
EXCERPT //
Nonviolence is a harder discipline, both morally and strategically. It requires mastery of the inward person in a way that stills the grunts of anger and uplifts the voice of conscience. It requires an unending forgiveness of those who wrong us. And it demands that this spirit be mobilized in our activism in a way that flows from the heart.
The Indian philosopher Karuna Mantena wrote about the nonviolence of Gandhi (which directly inspired the work of Dr. King and his philosophical tutor Bayard Rustin) and how it expressed itself in the Indian Independence movement’s culture of protest:
“Marches were…to be slow and deliberate. Songs and prayers cultivated unity, solidarity, and emotional resolve among protestors…to onlookers they communicated something equally important, an inner calm and resiliency that is very different from what we now associate with the paradigm of disruptive protest…Nonviolence chooses to whisper rather than scream, to draw people close and cultivate the willingness to listen.”
The willingness to listen to the opposition receded with the death of Dr. King. This was a consequence not just of the absence of King’s voice but the presence of his success.
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