Frustrating, yet insightful I found the Move Crisis in Philadelphia an interesting read. I continually drew parallels to today’s racial conflicts with the police and felt the outcome to be a result of years of combined stupidity and blind resolution. Every opportunity presented that could have been utilized to procure a positive outcome was botched.
As Gatlung stated “social differentiation slowly takes on vertical characteristics with increasingly unequal exchange and these social facts would then be in search of social acts for their maintenance and cultural violence for their justification”. This quote by Gatlung in my opinion perfectly explains the development of conflict seen with the MOVE. John Africa started a non-violent activist group that later led to a deadly encounter. The social differentiation between the MOVE and other citizens in Philadelphia began as a relatively minor encounter with varying characteristics such as recycling, animals, and profanities. These characteristics of the MOVE increasingly resulted in unequal exchanges with other citizens and more so the police. What continued to ensue was in the form of justification.
As Gatlung stated “social differentiation slowly takes on vertical characteristics with increasingly unequal exchange and these social facts would then be in search of social acts for their maintenance and cultural violence for their justification”. This quote by Gatlung in my opinion perfectly explains the development of conflict seen with the MOVE. John Africa started a non-violent activist group that later led to a deadly encounter. The social differentiation between the MOVE and other citizens in Philadelphia began as a relatively minor encounter with varying characteristics such as recycling, animals, and profanities. These characteristics of the MOVE increasingly resulted in unequal exchanges with other citizens and more so the police. What continued to ensue was in the form of justification.