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Ferguson incident breaks out the racism in America

4/12/14


“As long as justice is postponed we always stand on the verge of these darker nights of social disruption.” So said Martin Luther King Jr. in a speech on March 14, 1968, just three weeks before he was assassinated.
Michael Brown’s killing in August continues to send shockwaves through Ferguson, Missouri, and beyond.
“He killed an unarmed black teenager. There is no excuse for that. A man was killed and somebody walked away ... we want answers. Because it seems like the only way you can get away with murder is if you got a badge.” Said a young demonstrator in Ferguson.
In more than 30 U.S. cities, workers and students walked out of school or off the job Monday with their hands raised to protest the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. In Washington, D.C., protesters staged a die-in at the Justice Department. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, dozens laid down in a major intersection in Harvard Square. President Obama. meanwhile, issued his first major policy response, announcing a community policing initiative
One week after the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case, President Obama has given his first major policy response to the protests from Ferguson and beyond over racial profiling and police brutality. At a meeting with activists and officials from around the country, Obama unveiled a process to address what he called "simmering distrust." The administration’s response comes as protests continue nationwide over the non-indictment of former officer Darren Wilson over killing Brown.
“The real root of it has to be addressed. And the real root of it is racism in America, the anti-black sentiments that exist. Until we begin to address that, we really can’t have any real change — all we have are these small steps towards justice. We need leaps and bounds." said an activist.
Even before the Ferguson grand jury's decision was announced, leaders were calling once again for a "national conversation on race." But here's why such conversations rarely go anywhere: Whites and racial minorities speak a different language when they talk about racism, scholars and psychologists say.
“I don't see color”, it's a phrase some white people invoke when a conversation turns to race. Some apply it to Ferguson. They're not particularly troubled by the grand jury's decision to not issue an indictment. The racial identities of Darren Wilson, the white police officer, and Michael Brown, the black man he killed, shouldn't matter, they say. Let the legal system handle the decision without race-baiting. Justice should be colorblind.
Science has bad news, though, for anyone who claims to not see race: They're deluding themselves, say several bias experts. A body of scientific research over the past 50 years shows that people notice not only race but gender, wealth, even weight.
When some whites talk about racism, they think it's only personal -- what one person says or does to another. But many minorities and people who study race say racism can be impersonal, calculating, devoid of malice. The first thing we must stop doing is making racism a personal thing and understand that it is a system of advantage based on race. Racism "permeates every facet of our societal pores. It's about more than that cop who targets a teen while 'WWB' (walking while black) but the system that makes it OK to not only stop him but to put him in a system that will target and limit his life chances for life.
The system defends itself, not the public. The Brown family, protesters and civil rights advocates all wanted the criminal justice system to take a fair look at what unfolded in August, but kept getting signs that was not likely to happen. In August, police leaked video footage showing Brown robbing a convenience store, which was intended to smear his character and suggest that somehow Brown deserved what happened in the subsequent confrontation with Wilson.
The grand jury proceeding was strange, legal experts noted. The prosecutor said he was being fair by bringing all the evidence to the 12 jurors. But that tactic has been interpreted as a deliberate move to overwhelm jurors and create doubts that would not lead to recommending Wilson be charged. It is curiously parallel to what unfolded in the Trayvon Martin murder case, in which experts said Florida prosecutors didn’t really want to convict George Zimmerman.
The Ferguson protests are not in a vacuum, but come against a backdrop of ongoing societal hardship, especially in black communities. Obama has said that the U.S. is making progress on race issues, yet it’s hard, if not impossible, to separate issues of race and class.
Many have already looked at them as something beyond a personal interaction between a white police officer and a young black man. They point out that two-thirds of Ferguson's population is black, yet the mayor, police chief and five of six city council members are white -- as are 50 of the 53 people in its Police Department.
Ferguson is like countless multiracial communities, they say: calm on the surface but seething with racial disparities beneath. Racism is real in America. The uprising in Ferguson was an inevitable reaction to the institutional racism coursing through the area for decades
The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., by police officer Darren Wilson has made the Midwestern U.S. city a focal point for the world's media. It shone a spotlight on what the world perceived to be America's deep, entrenched problems. Should we criticize America for meddling in other country's affairs, when it evidently has so much trouble at home?
So the U.S. government, when talking about their own country, forgets about democracy, human rights, protection of ‘peaceful protesters’ and people’s right to protest. Or as they say, the United States – it’s a completely different matter./.
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All comments [ 10 ]


For A Peace World 4/12/14 21:33

So a symbol of human rights and democracy, what a hilarious!

Socialist Society 4/12/14 21:35

Is it ok for a white cop who shot a black man in a community where majority black residents have long complained about poor treatment from the nearly all-white police force.?

Me Too! 4/12/14 21:39

That's a evidence about the U.S. violation of human rights, and no one speaks out. Is it because they are a strong nation so they can say what they want about other countries' human rights.

Vietnam Love 4/12/14 21:41

So ashamed! A country of democracy, american dream = what a holy shit!

Voice of people 4/12/14 21:45

“I don't see color”, it's a phrase some white people invoke when a conversation turns to race. What a hypocrite!

John Smith 4/12/14 21:47

Is it okay for a white man in a nation that is systematically enacting laws making it harder for black people to vote, and where the black unemployment rate is more than twice that for whites and the black poverty rate is nearly twice the rate for the general population.

Gentle Moon 4/12/14 21:48

The first thing we must stop doing is making racism a personal thing and understand that it is a system of advantage based on race.

LawrenceSamuels 4/12/14 21:55

Racism is real in America, and someone still praises them and protests against their country?

Red Star 4/12/14 21:58

The weapons that destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq have made their way to local law enforcement. While police forces across the country began a process of militarization — complete with SWAT teams and flash-bang grenades.

yobro yobro 4/12/14 22:00

That's an allegation of power, or as they say they are different.

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