Reflecting on Toledo

I'm sure by now everyone has heard about or seen footage from the riot in Toledo yesterday. It seems a group of Nazis wanted to stage a march through Toledo, Ohio, to protest violence by blacks upon whites. The march was cancelled, but violence erupted anyway. And looting, lets not forget looting. And burning. At least one building was burned.

Let me start by saying I have no sympathy for Nazis. I feel that the Nazi movement represents reprehensible politics. Politics of exclusion, politics of racial hate. My uncles fought against the Nazis during the past century, defeating them soundly, with the help of a couple of million US servicemen. You will find no sympathy in this blog for Nazi politics.

That said, the Nazis really didn't have to do anything to make their point. They were decrying black violence, and the blacks there turned... violent. This picture says it all.


That screen capture is a bunch of blacks looting a store. Violence.

These words from the Mayor of Toledo, Jack Ford, tell the tale:

Ford blamed the rioting on gangs taking advantage of a volatile situation. He declared a state of emergency, set an 8 p.m. curfew through the weekend, and asked the Highway Patrol for help.
''It's exactly what they wanted,'' Ford said of the group that planned the march, which was canceled because of the rioting.

This quote, from MSNBC gives the justification:

Keith White, a black resident, criticized city officials for allowing the march: “They let them come here and expect this not to happen?” said White, 29.

The whole point of this post is to reply to Mr. White, who has now become a national spokesperson for black violence.

That's right Mr. White, we don't expect US Citizens to turn violent, to engage in looting and vandalism and arson simply because someone else is espousing a failed political message. We don't expect criminal activity just because someone else is stupidly attached to racist politics.

As a matter of fact, Mr. White, your assumption that black people are inherently violent is just exactly the point that the Nazis were making in the first place: That black people are unable to allow differing viewpoints and that the only way black people can react to unpopular dialogue is by resorting to criminal violence.

Your assumption, Mr. White, that we should expect violence is insulting to me, to my black friends and colleagues and insulting to the First Amendment, which gives every American a voice.

The simple fact is that the Nazis didn't have to march. All they had to do was to show up and decry black violence. The residents of Toledo validated the Nazi message by turning violent. That is a damned shame.

You proved that the Nazi's were right.