Uprising Or Riot Or Rebellion?

The straight media calls it a “Riot” we call it an “Uprising”
The Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Riot
a
: a violent public disorder
specifically : a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent
b
: public violence, tumult, or disorder
2
: a random or disorderly profusion
the woods were a riot of color
3
: one that is wildly amusing
the new comedy is a riot

Uprising

as in revolt
open fighting against authority (as one's own government)

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It really your point of view, when the oppressed community shakes off the yoke of oppression: the oppressed sees it as an uprising while the oppressors sees it as a riot.

I asked Perplexity AI: Was stonewall a riot or an uprising?

Answer
The Stonewall events were widely referred to as "riots" initially, but many now consider the term "uprising" or "rebellion" to be more accurate and respectful descriptions. The key points are:

• The confrontations between LGBTQ+ patrons and police at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969 sparked days of protests and clashes, marking a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. [1, 3, & 4]
• While early media reports labeled it a "riot", this term was often used by police to justify their use of force against the LGBTQ+ community. Many participants and historians prefer the terms "uprising" or "rebellion" to highlight the resistance against systemic oppression and discrimination. [3]
• The Stonewall Veterans' Association explicitly stated their opposition to the word "riot", saying "The rebellion (it was never a 'riot') lasted five inconsecutive nights (they were not 'riots')." [3]
• Terms like "uprising" and "rebellion" suggest a more organized and purposeful resistance to oppression, as opposed to a senseless or irrational "riot". [2]
• While not the first protest against LGBTQ+ discrimination, Stonewall marked a shift towards more radical activism and galvanized the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in the United States. [1 & 4]

So in summary, while initially labeled "riots", the events at Stonewall are now more accurately and respectfully referred to as an "uprising" or "rebellion" by LGBTQ+ historians and activists, highlighting their significance as an act of resistance against systemic injustice.

References:

1. What were the Stonewall riots?
2. Was Stonewall a Riot, an Uprising or a Rebellion? Here’s How the Description Has Changed—And Why It Matters
3. 1969: The Stonewall Uprising
4. Stonewall riots
5. A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: The Stonewall Riots

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The second reference attracted my attention.

The Stonewall Inn has become to the modern LGBT rights movement what Lexington and Concord were to the American Revolution. But while there is broad agreement that something seismic happened there one fateful night in 1969, there is little consensus on anything else — including how people should talk about it. After police raided the New York City bar and sparked protest from patrons, were there riots? Was there an uprising? Was it a rebellion?

This is not just a matter for copy editors. The terminology that people use shapes how historical events are perceived, from the way they came to happen to why they matter. That’s why, for instance, some Southerners have called the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression and why some Catholic textbooks offer lessons about the Protestant Revolt rather than the Protestant Reformation. Disagreements over what to call Stonewall reflect different conceptions of what it was. “There has been a debate about the meaning of Stonewall,” says Columbia University history professor George Chauncey, “from the very beginning.”

The name that we give it is very important, we were shaking off the confinement of oppression. We had to be in the shadows, we could lose our family, our job, our home, we could be arrested, and we could even be locked up in an insane asylum where they electrically shocked your brain to cure you of being “GAY.”

Back in 1969, calling Stonewall a “riot” was, in some ways, strategic. The event was disruptive and violent. When police raided the Stonewall Inn, LGBT bar patrons pushed back, throwing coins at police, liberating detainees from custody and attempting to light the bar on fire while police were still inside. Parking meters were uprooted, stones were thrown and several nights of protests, involving thousands of people, followed.

The looting, the burning of Black neighborhoods in 1960s and 1970s were also uprisings from the oppression. When oppressed people rise up and say “Enough” the oppressors calls it rioting and we don’t get to name it.

That is likely why outlets like the New York Times used what today may seem like diminishing language, characterizing Stonewall as a “melee” or “near-riot” when it first happened. The gay press, by contrast, started calling Stonewall a “riot” almost immediately.

But you do know that the Stonewall Uprising was not the first time we stood up and said enough it enough!

Before the Stonewall Uprising there was…
1959: Cooper’s Do-nuts
1965: Dewey’s Lunch Counter
1966: Compton’s Cafeteria
1967: The Black Cat Cafe
1969: The Stonewall Uprising!