Violence can never be removed from the conditions that produced it—to deny this is an idealist fantasy:

“We were told that violence in itself is evil, and that, whatever the cause, it is unjustified morally.

By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master? By what standards can we equate the violence of blacks who have been oppressed, suppressed, depressed and repressed for four centuries with the violence of white fascists?

Violence aimed at the recovery of human dignity and at equality cannot be judged by the same yardstick as violence aimed at maintenance of discrimination and oppression.”

— Walter Rodney, The Groundings With My Brothers, 1971