Harry Targ
(parts of which
were posted in The Rag Blog August 21, 2014)
"Rev William Barber, a left-leaning pastor and social activist, has condemned last week’s “brutal, ugly” murder of Charlie Kirk while calling for a broader denunciation of political violence on all sides...
Barber spoke out against the killing of Kirk – an ally of Donald Trump – during an online event commemorating the anniversary of one of the most notorious acts of political violence in US history, the bombing of a Black church by members of the Ku Klux Klan on 15 September 1963.
Three 14-year-old girls and another aged 11 were killed when an explosion caused by 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timer ripped through the 16th Street Baptist Street church in Birmingham, Alabama, at a time when the city was a focal point of the Black civil rights movement. (Robert Tait, "Rev William Barber condemns Kirk’s killing and warns against using religion to ‘sanctify wrong,"The Guardian, September 15, 2025).
The forms of peace and violence
From police violence, to endless killing, to economic despair, to lack of political representation, to cultural rationales for state violence, the basic characteristics of American society are uncovered.
In addressing violence, researchers,
educators, journalists, and religious leaders have usually concentrated on its
most visible forms: murder and war. The central features of such violence
include physical assault and killing. In our own day terrorism and shootings
have joined war as the most popular common subject for study.
Over the years, peace educators have developed
intellectual tools to uncover more diverse meanings of violence, their
differences and their connections. Structural violence has been distinguished
from direct violence. Researchers continue to analyze direct violence, physical
assault and killing, but also study structural violence, the various forms of
human suffering that take more time, impose pain and suffering on populations,
and are perpetuated by leading institutions and relationships in society.
Structural violence includes economic
inequality, low wages and poverty, inadequate access to health care and
education, and the psychological damage that economic suffering causes. These
injustices, the concept of structural violence suggests, are embedded in
economic, social, and political institutions.
It is possible to disaggregate further the
structural violence that is embedded in institutions. Institutional violence
refers to unequal distribution of power and influence in major societal
institutions: political, criminal justice, and educational, for example.
Finally, cultural violence refers to the images, symbols, and educational materials that value some population groups over others. Culture refers to the public consciousness of history, traditions, and popular narratives that describe people. Stereotypes are short-hand representations of a culture. And cultural violence includes its central role in popular culture: movies, television, and literature. Killing is legitimized as a core part of our entertainment.
In total, violence is direct, structural, institutional, and cultural. These kinds of violence may occur separately but in most cases are inextricably connected. It is this fourfold conception of violence that is relevant to the current crises of police/national guard/ICE occupations, shootings, and the celebration and perpetuation of war.
So from police violence — killing, gassing,
beating — to economic despair, to lack of political representation, to cultural
rationales for state violence, the basic characteristics of American society
are uncovered. And particularly the victimization of people of color, as well as
workers, and women, lead to the following conclusions:
▪ The root cause of exploitation, racism, and
sexism is structural violence (capitalism).
▪ Physical violence is used to crush rebellion
against class exploitation and racism.
▪ Unrepresentative political institutions are
dominated by the wealthy and powerful.
▪ Dominant cultural stereotypes and specific
narratives about society reinforce the economic system, the political system,
and justify police and other gun violence.
In sum, in addressing violence, its multiple
forms should be taken into consideration. To solve the problems of physical
violence in US society, structural, institutional, and cultural violence must
be addressed.
