The alternative gets cracked down and can never meaningfully challenge racial capitalism.

In June 2015, a white supremacist opened fire inside the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine black congregants, including the minister. The massacre sparked a crescendo of anti-racist protest, including often successful demands for the removal of statues of Confederate Generals from public spaces throughout the South. Two years later, a coalition of white nationalists arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, for a “Unite the Right” rally aimed at protesting and reversing the local City Council’s decision to remove from the city’s center of a hundred year-old statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Also gathered in Charlottesville were civil rights activists who sought to support the city’s resolve in removing the statue, and to press for further reforms aimed at dismantling institutional white supremacy. The event turned violent after the white nationalists attacked the racial justice advocates with tiki torches, pepper spray and lighter fluid. Fights erupted, injuring at least 30 people. The weekend of protest ended when one of the white nationalists deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of antiracist counter-protesters, injuring 19 and killing one. Refusing to condemn either the goals or the actions of the white nationalists, President Trump  that there were “very bad people … and very fine people on both sides.” In June 2015, a white supremacist opened fire inside the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine black congregants, including the minister. The massacre sparked a crescendo of anti-racist protest, including often successful demands for the removal of statues of Confederate Generals from public spaces throughout the South. Two years later, a coalition of white nationalists arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, for a “Unite the Right” rally aimed at protesting and reversing the local City Council’s decision to remove from the city’s center of a hundred year-old statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Also gathered in Charlottesville were civil rights activists who sought to support the city’s resolve in removing the statue, and to press for further reforms aimed at dismantling institutional white supremacy. The event turned violent after the white nationalists attacked the racial justice advocates with tiki torches, pepper spray and lighter fluid. Fights erupted, injuring at least 30 people. The weekend of protest ended when one of the white nationalists deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of antiracist counter-protesters, injuring 19 and killing one. Refusing to condemn either the goals or the actions of the white nationalists, President Trump  that there were “very bad people … and very fine people on both sides.” Successful movements should act in a political environment in which they have leverage to demand systemic change. Authorities who control institutional policy grant concessions only when organized disruptions are more damaging to their continued power than giving in to the demands of the movement. Successful movements must include the rank and file of the constituencies they are representing in decisions concerning goals and tactics. Often this involves working in tandem with organizations that link the movement to the communities that will benefit from the movement’s success. Successful movements should act in a political environment in which they have leverage to demand systemic change. Authorities who control institutional policy grant concessions only when organized disruptions are more damaging to their continued power than giving in to the demands of the movement. Successful movements must include the rank and file of the constituencies they are representing in decisions concerning goals and tactics. Often this involves working in tandem with organizations that link the movement to the communities that will benefit from the movement’s success. And still, there are no guarantees of success. Because social movements form organically, outside of mainstream institutions, they are by nature . Rarely does meaningful change happen by relying exclusively on peaceful and lawful means. Petitions, marches, litigation, and chanting are only part of the protest repertoire. Achieving systemic change invariably requires : social movements gain leverage when they disrupt business-as-usual for the institution they are targeting—by stopping traffic, blocking commerce, surrounding buildings or interfering with administrative activities. Generations of activists, as well as the scholars who study social movements, have been challenged by the need to deploy effective strategies when nonviolent disruption reaches an impasse without generating concessionary responses; or when it provokes violent responses by the police or by counterdemonstrators aimed at defeating the demands for institutional change. Faced with severe repression, good movements typically retreat. But dispersing a disruptive action can often guarantee failure, because the movement may not have the capacity to rebuild its strength and recapture the leverage. The alternative is to hold their ground, facing off with police or counterdemonstrators, thus prolonging and intensifying the disruption. The police and counterdemonstrators, who aim to dismantle the protest, must therefore target the bodies of activists. The human casualties that can occur on both sides can, in an instant, transform a site of protest into a sensationalized event, drawing attention away from the political aims of the movement.Sites of protest are thus both vibrant and vulnerable. But social movements that are attempting to ameliorate “big” social problems and gaping contradictions in the democratic order—economic inequities, racism, patriarchy—are . As such, the clash between white supremacists and racial justice activists that took place in Charlottesville in 2017 should be viewed as a recent “moment” in the long civil rights movement that began at the end of the Civil War. Persistence—sustaining commitment, perhaps over the course of a lifetime; expanding networks while forming and reforming coalitions; assessing failures and devising new strategies; exploiting new political opportunities with fresh tactical repertoires; and integrating new generations into the life of the movement—is key to assuring further moments of success. As the pioneers of social history have shown, this is how “bad” movements are defeated and “good” changes are won.