Outside agitator is a term that has been used to discount political unrest as being driven by outsiders, rather than by internal discontent. The term was popularized during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, when Southern authorities discounted African-American protests as being driven by Northern white radicals, rather than being legitimate expressions of grievances.[1][2]
The term gained further prominence during the George Floyd protests, with local officials in Minneapolis claiming that most protesters were not from the city, despite jail records and social media indicating otherwise.[3] The term was also used during the Ferguson unrest in 2014.[4]
The term saw wide use by public figures and media coverage during the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. The term was used to dismiss student protests by claiming that they'd been coopted by foreign actors rather than acting organically.[5] After clearing out the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupation, New York police deputy commissioner Tarik Sheppard claimed that the chains of bike locks sold by Columbia University were "not what students bring to school" to support the claim that outside agitators were responsible for students locking themselves in Hind's Hall.[6]
^Cindy Milstein (October 21, 2015). Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism. AK Press. pp. 113–. ISBN 978-1-84935-232-1.
^Leslie Vincent Tischauser (1998). Black/white Relations in American History: An Annotated Bibliography. Scarecrow Press. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-0-8108-3389-0.
^Brett Murphy; Josh Salman; Dak Le (May 31, 2020). "Officials blame 'out-of-state' agitators but those at the heart of protests are homegrown". USA Today. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
^"Unmasking The 'Outside Agitator'". NPR. June 10, 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
^Jake Offenhartz (May 1, 2024). "A retired teacher saw inspiration in Columbia's protests. Eric Adams called her an outside agitator". Associated Press. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
^ Zachary Leeman (May 1, 2024). "NY Police Deputy Commissioner Brings Chains Used By Columbia 'Agitators' Into Morning Joe Studio, Claims It's 'Not What Students Bring to School'". Mediaite. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
Outsideagitator is a term that has been used to discount political unrest as being driven by outsiders, rather than by internal discontent. The term was...
parliament of India. Crisis actor § Conspiracy theories and defamation Outsideagitator Notes Not to be confused with professionals who protest. Citations...
Observer – via theguardian.com. MacFarquhar, Larissa (December 8, 2008). "OutsideAgitator: Naomi Klein and the New Left". The New Yorker. Gatehouse, Jonathon...
Retrieved June 3, 2020. Offenhartz, Jake (June 10, 2020). "Meet The "OutsideAgitator" Whose Bronx March Was Violently Cracked Down On By The NYPD". Gothamist...
indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outsideagitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered...
University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvs32rk6.11 Parker, Adam. (2018). OutsideAgitator: the Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr. Hub City Press...
May 7, 2024. Koch, M.J. (2024-05-02). "Police, Administrators Say 'OutsideAgitators' Behind Much of the Anti-Israel Unrest on Campuses Across America"...
century. Daniels was the subject of historian Charles Eagles' book OutsideAgitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama (1993), which...
blacks in South Carolina." The Orangeburg elites viewed Sellers as an outsideagitator who was there to stir up trouble. There were several ongoing sources...
of outsideagitators coming into Alabama to violate our laws and customs" which had led to "outbreaks of lawlessness and mob action." The "outside agitators"...
of students into protective custody. While local officials blamed outsideagitators, a report released by the North Carolina State Advisory Committee...
discord onlinePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Outsideagitators – American political term of disparagementPages displaying short descriptions...
the arrests were premeditated and said the protest was caused by "outsideagitators" to "cause mayhem" and "injure cops". HRW found the protest was peaceful...
procedure." The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outsideagitators, stating that "if an accommodation can be effected, the occupation...
Living. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. O'Driscoll B. "OutsideAgitators". Pittsburgh City Paper. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011...
Papers (New York: Seabury Press, 1967). Eagles, Charles (2000) [1993]. OutsideAgitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. Tuscaloosa:...
Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Baltimore, described Shabazz as an "outsideagitator" and another local pastor, Rev. Louis Wilson, said Shabazz does not...
(2004). Public Space and the Culture of Childhood. Routledge. p. 91. "OutsideAgitators" by Bill O'Driscoll, Pittsburgh City Paper "How stranger danger changed...
administration issued the first report, blaming the violence on "outsideagitators", described as "revolutionaries" who came to Chicago "for the avowed...
PMID 19833605. S2CID 14724097 – via PubMed National Library of Medicine. OutsideAgitators Archived 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine by Bill O'Driscoll, Pittsburgh...
opposition leader Neil Kinnock responded by blaming the demonstrations on outsideagitators, respectively calling them "rent a mob extremists" and "Toy Town revolutionaries"...
gives the men a token suspended sentence while deriding the FBI as "outsideagitators" who provoked the white men to violence. He then releases the men...
1968, the Daley administration issued a report that focused on "outsideagitators" with an "avowed purpose of a hostile confrontation with law enforcement...
2002, p. 167, "Despite the most active search of the authorities, outsideagitators and instigators were never found. The urban intelligentsia was rarely...
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