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Kerner report findings11/28/2023 ![]() While the commission took effective aim at conservative arguments, it did not fully explore the limitations of its own position that “white racism” caused the riots. The Kerner report was bold: It was the first federal report ever to cast an accusatory finger at white society for the conditions in poor black neighborhoods. The social scientists concluded that those most active in the riots were not misfits instead they voted, read newspapers and were generally plugged into the world. They also did not like that the final report effectively dismantled all the conservative explanations of the riots: The disturbances were not being orchestrated by a handful of radicals, most African Americans were not generally pleased with their conditions and a tougher law-and-order approach would likely only inflame, not diffuse, tension. Conservatives were less pleased, complaining that the report blamed everyone except the rioters for the disturbances. The condemnation of “white racism” sent liberal hearts aflutter, as did the billions of dollars in federal spending that the report recommended for reconstructing American cities. READ MORE: The Detroit Riots, From a Child's PerspectiveĬalling Out the Impact of Pervasive Racism ![]() In stark language the report concluded: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, and one white-separate and unequal." It placed blame for urban ills on "white racism." “White institutions” created the ghetto, the report stated, “white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.” On March 1, 1968, the commission issued its final report. While the fires were still burning in the latter city, President Lyndon Johnson created the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, popularly known as the Kerner Commission, to identify the causes of the disturbances and to propose solutions to prevent them from happening again. The year was 1967, and the nation had just experienced a series of long hot summers of rioting that culminated with the conflagrations in Newark and Detroit. So they were excised from the final report and physically destroyed. In fact, the last time the federal government took a hard look at the causes of urban unrest was in the late 1960s, the most complex findings proved too controversial to be politically palatable. The reality, however, is far more complicated and exposes the limits of the conventional wisdom on both sides of the ideological spectrum. Liberals, on the other hand, tend to take a more sympathetic view of the riots and the rioters, blaming the unrest on deep-seated racism and the economic disadvantage that it produced. ![]() Conservatives and most mainstream media outlets often view these disturbances as “riots”-uncontrolled and irrational spasms of reckless violence usually instigated by a handful of unrepresentative malcontents and always the result of a breakdown of respect for authority. In recent years, especially following the disturbances that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland following the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, pundits and editorial writers have offered many different explanations for what causes riots. Policeman arresting an African American after race riots in Detroit, 1967.
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