The 'Why'

Now, we shall have a look at three main racial riots that happened in the 20th century, the 1919 Chicago Riots, the 1967 Detroit Riots and the 1998 Indonesian Racial Riots, and examine how they have proven to be a barrier in a racially cohesive society.
Racial riots happen all over the world. It happened in the past. It happens in the present. And it may happen in the future. If racial discrimination is not halted or people do not live together cohesively, more of these disasters may occur and more innocent lives may be lost.

The authorities of Chicago faced a sensitive and important issue many years ago in 1919 regarding a young African-American teenager being murdered by white men. Then, the racial tension in the state was escalating to the breaking point, regarding the unfair segregation of the beaches. When Eugene Williams, a black youth, drowned while being stoned by a white guy at the beach during a stone throwing melee, the racial riots erupted. The riots ensued further and in fact got much worse, as a white law enforcement officer refused to arrest another white man, and even ended up arresting a black man instead. Many young white teenagers formed gangs to look for black men, beating them up wherever they went; it was a nightmare, nothing as sudden and of such a large scale did take place in the past. The riots lasted for 5 days and claimed the lives of 23 blacks and 15 whites with 537 others injured and about 1000 people left homeless from the fighting and arson that took place. That was not the last of the main American race riots.

In the 1960s when conflicting cultures was a big issue in the rapidly growing Detroit, racial discrimination was commonplace. Many black neighborhoods suffered from overcrowding, with lack of housing mostly due to the unfair practices of lending and the many deed restrictions that were imposed on the black population. The lack of funds for education and transport further worsened the problem of segregation. The Detroit 12th Street riot 1967 occurred when police executed a raid on an illegal bar in a predominantly black neighborhood and arrested everyone in it. This movement was believed to be attributed to the Ku Klux Klan but it could not be confirmed. Such an act shocked the local black community and in an outburst of anger, the race riots started. Vandalism, looting and fires occurred all over Detroit. It lasted for 5 days resulting in 43 dead and 1189 injured. The riot was also started because of urban unrest in Detroit which was caused by many factors, which include political, economic and social issues. Some examples which explain the issues that contributed to the urban unrest in Detroit includes the abuse of power by the law enforcement agencies, especially the police, new urban renewal projects and black militancy, coupled with rapid demographic change in the area. Police brutality had been commonplace in that area during that period of time, and such acts include verbally assaulting the blacks and unfair by the mostly white police force. The most surprising thing was that the blacks even looted houses that belonged to other blacks, to them, they only wanted revenge, and race did not stand in their path of whatever they wanted to do to get their own back. In the aftermath of the riots, many stood in the streets homeless, as Detroit’s mayor at that time put it, “Today we stand amidst the ashes of our hopes. We hoped against hope that what we had been doing was enough to prevent a riot. It was not enough." It would take many years before the town and people of Detroit recovered from this riot, the second largest in American history.

Yet another racial riot occurred in Indonesia a few years ago in 1998. That riot was fueled by the falling value of the rupiah, causing the prices of ordinary goods to increase dramatically. After 4 students were shot dead while protesting to former President Suharto, the Indonesians fueled their hatred towards Chinese Indonesians who were a minority, turning them into scapegoats. Shops were burnt and numerous lives were lost in this riot. Ethnic Chinese females were raped in anger of the indigenous Indonesians. Looting occured everywhere leaving some Chinese Indonesians no choice but to flee the country, as the highly discriminatory laws did little to protect them. This tragedy caused a sharp drop in tourism and a decline in the economy.