In spite of the fact that the colonial system (like much of the world) is always already constituted by violence, many condemn the use of violence to confront violence and appeal to nonviolent resistance on the part of the oppressed. But to appeal to nonviolence (an appeal which is often one-sided, i.e., aiming at the violent resistance of the oppressed rather than at the violent system of oppression which they are confronting) or to pose the problem in terms of violence versus nonviolence is to present a false dilemma. Violence (and the threat of violence, which is itself violence) is already at the heart of most of our institutions (consider the police, military, prison system, education, media and entertainment, or capitalism in general). Thus, it is not a question of whether there will be violence, but rather whose violence will be endorsed and whose will be condemned. To condemn the violent self-defense of the oppressed is to, perhaps inadvertently, endorse the violence used to oppress.

— Hannah Arendt and the Negro Question by Kathryn Sophia Belle