Upon reviewing the data, timeline, and maps of what had happened on that unfortunate summer in Detroit, I believe the initial analysis was accurate. This was, in fact, a riot not an uprising, rebellion, or a mere disturbance. It was a spontaneous disorganised fit of violence. A city-wide civil disturbance that lasted 3 days. And given the data I’ve provided it seems that even if a small group of African American youths had instigated the riot, which there’s no evidence to say one group in particular instigating rather than another in my research so far; this was clearly a case where the white population had been disproportionately responsible for damages, violence, and the use of force. There were a lot of underlying racial insecurities between the blacks and whites as a result of cruel exclusionary laws & prejudice.

Most images of the riot and most accounts in the data show white groups tipping cars and beating on the black residents with officials either idly standing by or even participating in disproportionate use of force against the Afro-American community (often against looters, for example) rather than the whites who were inordinately responsible for the unlawful behaviour. If I was to consider the word-cloud visualisations, “Riot” was one of the most highly ranked descriptors and an emphasis was placed on racial terms such as “Colored” “Negro” and “White” so it’s not far-fetched to call it a race riot even by the standards of the press at the time.

This research topic was illuminating for me as it helped me get a better context for the more recent Floyd Riots that happened during COVID times since many of the concepts and tools for critical thinking can be applied there as well so I’d like to thank Prof. Robertson for presenting these ideas and the curriculum in such a clear and concise manner.