There have been many complaints about sleepless nights recently, as renegade fireworks fill the sky in New York and many other cities across the nation. Fireworks launched without permits are normal features of urban summers, but the explosions seem to be happening much more frequently than ever before, sometimes starting even before dark and lasting late into the night. The fireworks are mysterious. The voices of people who set them off are hard to find, and their reasons for doing so are unclear. But like archives, our minds can stretch to fill in the silences of today and find meanings in acts that might at first seem senselessly disruptive.
Renegade fireworks are happening at the same time as a historic uprising against police brutality and white supremacy. The blasts of colorful light do not convey clear messages the way that chants, banners, and cardboard signs at protests do, but as some activists have suggested, these explosions might be resistance too. Let us look to the context, suspending judgement for a moment about the booming noises that make it difficult to sleep, trigger people with PTSD, and startle pets. Officers have been brutalizing Black people for as long as policing has existed, but this truth has now been caught on video too many times for widespread denial to continue.[9] Black people are voicing their rage and grief. Joining them in the streets are more non-Black people of color and whites than ever before. Police departments have reacted to swelling protests against police brutality with more brutality.
In these circumstances, how might fireworks be a form of resistance? The explosions peaked in early June, when the leaders of many cities instituted curfews to criminalize our freedoms of assembly and speech. The fireworks not only defied the curfew, but might have also sent officers on wild goose chases away from protesters who refused to stop marching when night fell. Fireworks are tied to patriotism, and the struggle against deep and systemic racism moves this nation towards fulfilling the promise of “liberty and justice for all.” The sounds of these explosions evoke battle, and indeed Black activists are fighting for their lives. I’m just riffing here. The point is that stretching the definition of resistance allows us to consider possible messages underlying mysterious actions that might seem senseless at first glance, forging a link between a perceived nuisance and the struggle for change that this country so desperately needs.