NCJ Number
74950
Date Published
1976
Length
38 pages
Annotation
Challenging the findings of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders Kerner Commission report, the author offers a new theory regarding urban blacks, political protest and rioting.
Abstract
Contrary to the findings of the Kerner Commission report and to those statements of many ultraliberal theorists, the urban riots of the 1960s were not caused by white racism and did not even have a true political motivation. The rioters were drawn from the lower elements of the community. Such authoritative sociological theorists as Edward Banfield and William Kornhause saw the riots as expressive undirected acts arising out of nonspecific anger and frustration without any genuine instrumental political content. This explanation was challenged by advocates of ameliorative policies for blacks, who saw them endangered by questioning the riots' political motivation. The new urban blacks must be distinguished from the antisocial rioters. The former are individuals who, when confronted with the militant response to what they perceive as social injustice, choose nonviolent means to achieve social justice. The paper includes a comprehensive review of the existing literature on urban and collective violence, the new urban blacks, the development of a riot ideology, and the mass society theory. Tabular data are provided in the text on a survey of self-reported riot attitudes and behavior among urban blacks, which confirmed the author's premises that riot-prone behavior is not related to political perceptions and ideologies. Four tables and 65 footnotes are included in the paper.