Michael Brown was a criminal thug who got what he deserved.
Michael Brown was a young, flawed man with a promising future and was treated
too harshly. I suppose it depends on how you view Michael Brown that colors
your view on what is currently happening in Ferguson, Missouri. All life is
precious, except if you are a person of color who doesn’t fit your view of a
“good” and “obedient” and therefore, nonthreatening, citizen. It’s easy to love
and be accepting of people from your own similar background, class and
education level, and values, but if we are to love everybody, as the Bible and
common human decency commands, we cannot limit ourselves to just those who fit
our view of “good” citizens.
There are several points I hear a lot in online and tv
discussions that I would like to touch on.
*Just trust in the system/The system works: There is
an example from my own childhood that I think speaks to how the justice system
works for people of color in this country. When I was a kid, we used to play
Kick the Can almost every night in the summertime. The older kids, myself
included, would do the counting off to determine who was “it”. However, we knew
how to rig it by starting at a certain person so that we were never the person
tagged as “it”. We were playing by the rules, rules designed to be fair and
impartial, only we were cheating. We were taking advantage of the fact that the
others in the group were too young to realize what we were doing to protest or
fight against us. All they ever knew was that they were always “it”. This is
how the justice system works for people of color in this country, only they do
know it’s not working fairly, but they can’t fight it because those doing the
cheating are the ones in control of the system. It’s easy not to see the
unfairness in the system when it always works out for you.
After generations
of unfairness, you learn to not trust in the system to work out for you, and
why should you? It never has yet. It’s like Lucy van Pelt holding the football
for Charlie Brown and swearing that this time she’ll keep a hold on it. Charlie
grudgingly trusts her after she produces a signed document guaranteeing her promise.
With a deep breath and a new sense of hope and empowerment, he goes to kick the
ball, only to have her pull it out from under him at the last minute. She then
cites some flimsy excuse as to why her signed document was null and void. We
watch it every year and say to ourselves, “Lucy, why are you so cruel to him?”
and “Charlie Brown, why do you always fall for it?” If we think Charlie Brown
needs to wake up and stop trusting Lucy, then how can we possibly tell other
people in this nation to just be patient and wait for the system to work out
for them?
*This isn’t actually about Michael Brown: Michael
Brown is the straw that broke the camel’s back. This is about him and all the
other multitudes of black men killed by police officers over the years. This is
about being fed up with police officers using excessive force against black
people, men and women, when it isn’t warranted. This is about why “Walking
while black” is an actual phrase used in this country. This is about the system
working unfairly for all people of color, men and women. This is about
being so over it.
*You choose how you respond to things: Wrong. We are
conditioned to respond to things. When something is done to you enough times,
you start to see everything in that light. How a lower middle class black
teenage young man sees and responds to a police officer will always be
different from how an upper middle class white adult male’s response would be.
They cannot be compared and they are both 100% valid.
There are
studies that show that people see black people as being older, bigger, and
scarier than they really are, if they are at all. This conditioning goes into
the minds of police officers around this country. We could say “Oh, Michael
Brown should have just complied with the officer,” but the officer might not
have picked him out to deal with in the first place if Michael Brown hadn’t
been black. Remember, Officer Wilson stopped Brown for walking in the street,
not for the theft report which came about later. Wilson’s story that emerged
from the grand jury was different from his original story.
Michael
Brown was conditioned to react badly to the police officer, but the police
officer was also conditioned to see Michael Brown as being bigger and meaner
then he really was. The fact that he referred to him as looking like a “demon”
shows this. There is only a one inch height difference between the two men, yet
Officer Wilson describes him as looking so much bigger than himself.
This is
something we all need to work on. If conditioning got us to this point, doesn’t
it make sense that reconditioning ourselves could eventually get us past this
point?
*But look at all the looting and rioting, this just takes
away from the message: The media is showing you the story it wants to tell
you. The story that will keep you watching for as long as possible, and it’s
working. They are not showing you the peaceful protests and the acts of love
and kindness that are also occurring at this time. The more the media keeps you
frightened, the more likely you are to tune in.
One can
look at the violence being inflicted in many different ways. You can see it as
criminals breaking the law. You can see it as opportunists taking advantage of
a chaotic situation. You can see it as people who have no other way of
expressing their fury, rage, and disappointment and guaranteeing that they will
finally be heard. The system has failed them one more time and sometimes you
just can’t take it anymore and you snap.
I choose to
see this all as what hopelessness and helplessness does to a person over time.
It tears you down and beats you down until you find any possible way to fight
back. Don’t be shocked or outraged over this, be saddened. Be compassionate. I
don’t generally condone violence against other people’s property, and never
against other people, but what we are seeing is people driven past the point of
rationality. There is nothing rational about burning down a building in your
community, but there is also nothing rational about treating people so badly
for so long that they are left with no other alternative to express themselves.
I suppose what I am trying to say is, Don’t blame the residents of Ferguson for
what is happening there, blame all of us for not caring enough to change
anything before it came to this point.
*Privilege: We look at the world as though everybody
shares our same viewpoint, which for me is a middle class white woman who
currently has job security and a relatively uneventful and easy life. I have
six years of post-high school education under my belt and no debt. It would be
very, very wrong of me to assume that everybody must live like this and share
my view of the world. I have had opportunities available to me that other
people haven’t, solely because of my pigmentation or lack thereof. This is
something I always try to keep in mind when a racial issue arises in this
nation. I try to see it from the point of view of a person who has experienced
it all their life, because I certainly cannot speak to it. But it would be
wrong of me to say, “Well, that’s not my experience, so they must be
incorrect.” This only perpetuates the racial inequality problems in this
country. “I got mine, so to hell with everybody else,” is not the attitude of a
good citizen of this country/Christian/human being.
*What should be done about all of this? Body cameras
for every police officer in this country is a great first step. It would solve
a lot of the “he said/he can’t say cuz he’s dead” disputes. It might make
police officers who were inclined to be harsher to people of color, think twice
because they’ll be caught on camera if they do.
There are
other issues at play that need to be resolved as well, like ensuring that all
children have equal chances at getting healthy food to eat and an education,
and when they become adults, ensuring that they have equal job opportunities.
We can’t point fingers and say “Why can’t you just comply with the rules? I did
and look where it got me,” when the same level of opportunities is not extended
to everybody? This is a class issue as much as it is a race issue.
I have to believe that things can change in this country. I
have to keep hope that there will be a better day. We all deserve to live here
in peace and comfort, and it’s on every single one of us to ensure that.
It’s hard
sometimes, being a white ally in a fight where you aren’t always wanted or made
to feel welcome. Fighting with your own friends and family is tough, but it’s
still important to help other people become aware of their own class, race, and
gender privileges. How can anything ever be changed if we stay blind to our own
advantages? This isn’t about guilt, this is about awareness. Sometimes the best
thing we can do in an unfair situation, is be a witness to it.
Being a
white ally might get you looked at with mistrust by others, and why shouldn’t
it? We represent the broken system. We benefit from it. We have to earn it. So
the question is, are we going to be like Lucy when she holds the football for
Charlie Brown? Will we pull the ball out from underfoot at the last minute with
a smirk and a cheeky excuse, or will we be there for him, allowing him to
finally make the kickoff? I know what I want to do…How about you?
Citations and good sources to check out: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366567307/florida-woman-in-stand-your-ground-case-accepts-plea-deal
