Leadership Quote by Al Sharpton

Sharpton’s line is a trap disguised as a procedural question. He doesn’t start by defending the accused; he starts by putting “trouble” itself on trial. The move is classic Sharpton: shift the battleground from events to framing, because in American politics the winner is often whoever gets to name the problem.

The intent is tactical. “Proper definition” sounds neutral, almost bureaucratic, but it’s really a demand to interrogate who is doing the labeling. In moments of protest, police action, or racialized public panic, “trouble” becomes a lazy catchall that collapses motives into menace: the marcher and the looter, the organizer and the agitator, all filed under the same damning word. Sharpton is arguing that this vagueness isn’t accidental; it’s useful. A fuzzy definition lets power call dissent the disturbance, rather than examining what dissent is responding to.

The subtext is sharper: the “real troublemakers” might be the ones with the microphones, badges, or budgets. He’s inviting listeners to consider that disorder can be a response to injustice, while the deeper “trouble” is structural - policies, neglect, brutality, a media narrative that treats anger as the story instead of its cause. It’s a rhetorical judo move: accept the public’s concern about “trouble,” then redirect it toward accountability.

Contextually, the line sits in Sharpton’s long career of contesting who gets presumed innocent or dangerous in public life. It’s less a plea for calm than a demand for precision - because precision threatens the comfortable habit of blaming the loudest people in the street rather than the quiet decisions that put them there.