White intransigence and the radical rhetoric of Blacks fighting back

This essay analyzes the riverfront brawl in Montgomery, Alabama in 2023 to consider an instance when Black speech was met by white intransigence. I define white intransigence as a racist rhetorical convention that entails refusals to move in response to Black claims to public space. I then identify how Black bystanders on the riverfront enacted collective self-defense that beat back white intransigence through a radical rhetoric of embodied, confrontational movement. Lastly, I argue that overcoming white intransigence will require kinetic responses that force it to move.