outside agitator

{{use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}

{{Short description|American political term of disparagement}}

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.{{cite book |author=Cindy Milstein |title=Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uhbSCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT113 |date=October 21, 2015 |publisher=AK Press |isbn=978-1-84935-232-1 |pages=113–}}{{cite book |author=Leslie Vincent Tischauser |title=Black/white Relations in American History: An Annotated Bibliography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7k0cmLCH_mgC&pg=PA93 |year=1998 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-3389-0 |pages=93–}}

Martin Luther King Jr. criticized the term in Letter from Birmingham Jail, citing it as a phrase designed to dismiss civil disobedience.{{Cite web |last=King, Jr. |first=Martin Luther |date=16 April 1963 |title=Letter from a Birmingham Jail |url=https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html |access-date=2025-02-22 |website= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center}}

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.{{Cite news |title=Officials blame 'out-of-state' agitators but those at the heart of protests are homegrown |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/05/31/george-floyd-protest-agitators-mostly-homegrown-not-outsiders/5300362002/ |author1=Brett Murphy |author2=Josh Salman |author3=Dak Le |date=May 31, 2020 |newspaper=USA Today |language=en-US |access-date=2020-06-02}} The term was also used during the Ferguson unrest in 2014.{{Cite news |date=2020-06-10 |title=Unmasking The 'Outside Agitator' |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/873592665/unmasking-the-outside-agitator |access-date=2021-03-26 |publisher=NPR |language=en}}

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.{{Cite news |title=A retired teacher saw inspiration in Columbia's protests. Eric Adams called her an outside agitator |url=https://apnews.com/article/columbia-protests-eric-adams-outsiders-5319fdf36599295a3840d77c69458b57 |author=Jake Offenhartz |date=2024-05-01 |access-date=2024-05-02 |publisher=Associated Press |language=en}} 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 Hamilton Hall. {{Cite news |date=2024-05-01 |title=NY Police Deputy Commissioner Brings Chains Used By Columbia 'Agitators' Into Morning Joe Studio, Claims It's 'Not What Students Bring to School' |url=https://www.mediaite.com/politics/ny-police-deputy-commissioner-brings-chains-used-by-columbia-agitators-into-morning-joe-studio-not-what-students-bring-to-school/ |author=Zachary Leeman |access-date=2024-05-02 |publisher=Mediaite |language=en}}