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This post is about Ferguson … but not really.
This post is about about racism … but only kind of.
Honestly, it is more about me … but maybe you.
I grew up in a middle-class home in a mid-sized town in Southern Illinois. I am white. Very white. Not just in color but in culture. Diversity was not a part of my upbringing. This was not an intentional decision. My hometown was just not diverse. The number of non-white students in my high school was limited and, therefore, my exposure to different cultures was limited.
As a result, I do not know America.
I know a small part of America, but I do not know America as a whole.
It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago that I realized just how little I knew. My pastor there, Tim Hoekstra, has a huge heart for bridging the gap between suburban life and urban life. He exposed me to a world I never knew existed. (I had seen urban life before, but only through the lens of Hollywood.)
What I learned was shocking … and heartbreaking.
My parents (and teachers and pastors) taught me “the American dream” — the idea that, if I worked hard enough, I could be anything I wanted to be. And, for the most part, this was true … for me. If I wanted to be a doctor, I could have gone to medical school. If I wanted to be an astronaut, I could have dedicated more time to studying math (and not making fun of my trigonometry teacher and her weird sense of style). I could pursue my dream.
The emphasis was always placed on my ability to work hard. The opportunities that enabled my hard work were typically taken for granted. What Chicago taught me is that not everyone has those same opportunities. There are young men and women, living in the inner-city, who could easily out work me, out think me, and deserved it more than me, but because they were born in a sub-standard school district or their family is less capable of securing a $20,000 loan, they won’t get to attend college and pursue their dream.
The more time I have spent discovering the diversity of our nation, the more I have realized how sheltered I had been. Racism, oppression, and (systematic) slavery still exist. They had just been hidden from me. I had been blinded by my upbringing. I had been too white to see the colorful, often messy reality of our American canvas.
And I am still very blinded. I still have a lot to learn and a lot to understand.
There was a time in my life when I had an opinion about everything. (Just ask my parents.) If the past few years have taught me anything, it is that there are some issues on which I am too ignorant to have an opinion. Any issue that deals with race falls into that category. I am too sheltered. I am too white.
Because of this, I have had to learn to shut up. (For those of you who know me, this has been a challenge.) I have had to learn to listen. Anything I say prior to listening is not only ignorant but arrogant. I have had to realize that the goal is not to have a voice but to understand the voices already speaking. I must follow Jesus’s example and sit down at the table with those who are different than me. I must hear their story.
Why am I writing this? Because Facebook. Because Twitter. Because of the many racist comments I have seen posted over the past few days. Too many updates beginning with, “Why don’t black people…” Too many tweets ending with, “I knew it.” Too much ignorance, too much arrogance.
The writer of Proverbs says…
Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing their opinion. (Proverbs 18:2 CEB)
And then…
Those who answer before they listen are foolish and disgraceful. (Proverbs 18:13 CEB)
Maybe that last one could be better translated…
Those who tweet before they listen are foolish and disgraceful.
Racism, oppression, and (systematic) slavery still exist. Repeatedly, they are pushed under the surface. We try to pretend they aren’t there. But then something happens — something like Ferguson or Donald Sterling — and they rise to the surface. It is as if someone drills a hole in the dam. Unchecked passion and emotion break forth and flood the social landscape, often crushing those who stand in the way. To avoid drowning in the debate, many just start yelling — speaking without listening, expressing without understanding.
This must stop. We must stop. We must become people who — like James instructs us to do in the New Testament — are slow to speak and quick to listen.
We must take time to hear their story.
Then and only then can we truly join the conversation.
Very good article Dorian, thanks for sharing this. While that kid was wrong for what he did in the store, he still did not deserve to die like he did. There have been far to many men of color die at the hands of the police just because they were men of color.
If that was him in that tape robbing that guy. I don't really care he got shot. If he was working to buy his blunts he wouldn't have got shot. The people rioting don't give a shit he got shot either they are even worse. Just stealing shit to steal it. And isn't that what started this current situation anyway.
It was him and here is the tape. According to the police chief his robbery and subsequent shooting death had nothing to do with each other since the cop that shot him had no idea he committed a robbery only moments earlier. Seems he was a neighborhood bully and he's lucky he wasn't shot earlier by the store clerk who would have been well within his rights. (Still not justifying the cops behavior if he's surrendering)
No information on the investigation – including the name of the officer involved – will be released to the public until all witnesses have been interviewed. County Prosecutor Bob McCullough (Democrat, but very honest and forthright gentleman) does not want any eyewitness testimony tainted by the medical examiner’s report. (For those of us who have interview backgrounds and watch entirely too much CSI, that’s means there are conflicts between what the witnesses have been telling the media and what the coroner found.) – Cultural Limits, posted yesterday, August 14, 2014
___________
I guess they finished interviewing all the witnesses. And, yeah, there’s conflicts.
So, for those of us out here in the heartland who have been waiting for the police to finish what TV shows manage in an hour and in real life takes weeks, the impatient among us – that would be most of the country – were demanding answers from a police force and county prosecutor’s office that wanted every t crossed and i dotted. (Just in case there’s a trial or something. After all, Dorian Johnson is still alive.)
While we are due to get more information this afternoon, maybe, and it appears that the municipal and county police (that would be the Ferguson Police Department and the St. Louis County Police) were responding to Sunshine Laws or some such excuse the media and the mob are using to demand details that put the officer involved AND the integrity of the investigation at risk when they released the name Officer Darren Wilson, a six-year veteran with no disciplinary record. Well, and a strong-armed robbery report that featured one Michael Brown, deceased, with Dorian Johnson in tow on candid camera committing a class B felony.
This tidbit was out on social media all week, but where the theft happened and what was stolen changed depending who was telling the story. I saw he stole cigarettes at the QuikTrip and his girlfriend snitched, which obviously was not the case. Can’t always trust the Air Jordan Telegraph.
What happened after Officer Wilson encountered Mr. Brown and Mr. Johnson is yet to be released – and the theory in this house is that there’s forensic evidence still being tested – however, going along with the questions a number of thinking people have posed:
How DOES an officer sitting in a squad car reach up and grab a six foot four, 292 pound man behind the neck and pull him into the vehicle?
If, as it has been asserted, that Mr. Brown was shot in the back, why is there no blood on the back of his shirt in the photograph of him lying dead in the street?
If, as some “witness” has said, Mr. Brown had his hands up when he was shot multiple times in the front, why is the body in the picture on his front and why are his hands under him? From a physics perspective, that would be an interesting answer.
How is a six foot four, 292 pound man not a lethal weapon himself? (Remember, Officer Wilson was injured.)
Details, details.
For those of us who do not do police work and do not know the amount of time it takes to work a crime scene properly, it’s real easy to second guess all the “missteps” taken by our authorities since Saturday. Yes, the body was on the ground for a long time. But it takes a long time to be thorough. Also, none of us were shot at on Monday night, which prompted the full scale riot gear that went into the garage. We didn’t have bricks or bottles thrown at us, either.
(Don’t for a minute kid yourselves that Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol is anything more than changing the window dressing. He and the city police might just walk among the crowds, but they’ll get out the heavy artillery if needed. Johnson is a smart man with a gift for communication, but he’s still a cop, and they WILL use force to take control.)
It also takes a long time, on occasion, to get witnesses to cooperate. Especially if they are publicly lying to all media outlets who will listen for lack of exclusives and the police have video evidence of said witness committing a felony with the “victim.”
So, getting all the information in a place where that part of the investigation was not in jeopardy took time. Maybe they used an abundance of caution, but better safe than sorry.
So, now we know at least WHY Michael Brown was stopped…and based on his behavior in that video and other pictures that have surfaced over the last few days, it’s a good bet there’s a record of more such activity somewhere.
In the meantime, some details that the national media is glossing over:
Missouri allows for grand juries to charge individuals with a crime. In the case of Officer Wilson, the county prosecutor has indicated he will take any evidence to the grand jury and determine if there is enough evidence to charge him with anything.
Gov. Jay Nixon, before he was governor, was state Attorney General for a lot of years – and did a fantastic job. He knows the score and will step in only when necessary.
The distinction between city, county, municipal, and state police has not been made. The actual City of St. Louis is not a part of St. Louis County and as such has its own force – ultimately under the control of the governor, due to a whole lot of past corruption. Most municipalities in St. Louis County have their own forces in addition to the county police which patrol the unincorporated areas and the municipalities that can’t afford their own. The state police are, well, state. Why this is important is that the SWAT/militarized equipment belongs to the county and the state. Wednesday night, there were just as many state troopers in that police line as everyone else. None of that stuff belongs to Ferguson.
The “college” where St. Michael was going to go to school is a technical/trade school.
The “cigars” Brown and Johnson stole are supposedly used to mask the smell of marijuana.
As things develop further in the coming hours, there of course will be more. In the meantime keep the St. Louis Metro Region in your prayers as the rhetoric within the community has gotten increasingly ugly.
Hoping that Officer Darren Wilson is down in the Ozarks at somebody’s lake house with a fishing rod and a lot of bait.
And that's what sells. Journalism and media today is definitely not like it used to be. Opinions are focused on and popularity seems to be the coverage.
I get that police are fucked in this situation but Zanzibar does have a point regarding the looters. Most of the looters are just dumbasses who are taking advantage and fucking shit up. If you ask half of them they probably don't even know who Brown was.
And half of the people who don't know Brown don't even know why they're looting. Why riot your in own neighborhood? I don't get it and didn't get it in L.A. for Rodney King. If your neighbor gets killed for doing something stupid are you going to burn your own house down in protest?? Next come hands outstretched to the government asking for the neighborhood to be rebuilt with tax dollars.
Brown was a large person, despite the chubby gentle faced pictures he clearly towered over the convenience store clerk and easily pushed him around. He committed a robbery, he was about to get busted and instead of listening to the police he decided to argue then fight. Yes there's lots of conflicting information but I've heard the cops were responding to a robbery at the convenience store and Brown and his buddy were (rightly) approached because they (shocker!) matched the description of the thieves!
The whole situation is sad. It's sad the teenager was killed. It's sad he decided to steal a $3 box of the shittiest cigars ever made. It's sad the cop that shot him will forever be marred by the situation. It's sad a community is destroying itself and continuing violence in protest of a violent incident. But does this mean that America isn't for Blacks? Don't think so Dorian. America is for everyone who follows the laws and is a positive contributor to our society. Those who cannot do this are welcome to set up camp in a different country... these are the same people by the way who are working so hard to make us question what our society is and what it should be.
..........yet it's become accepted to call African Americans 'negroes' on this board.
Irony is still spelled i-r-o-n-y.
Negro or negroes is not a derogatory term, it's a classification of race. Some people of color do not like the term black either, because we're not black, we're brown, and the word black has a negative connotation. Check out Webster's dictionary sometime. We didn't come up with either word. Those are terms your forefather used to classify us, among others, but I digress.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wakeup
So if America is not for black people, then what logical course of action should black people follow?
Good question. We should let who brought us over here brainstorm on that. LOL loop
Those are terms your forefather used to classify us, among others, but I digress.
You don't know anything about my forefathers.
I'm waiting for one of the anglo keyboard warriors we have here to walk into any place in the 3rd or 5th ward and throw down the word 'negro' and see what happens.
..........yet it's become accepted to call African Americans 'negroes' on this board.
Irony is still spelled i-r-o-n-y.
Negro is not derragotary and since I am.not from Africa, have never been to Africa, cannot name one person I'm related to that is African, I have less of an issue with being called negro than I do being called African American...ijs. If you are in the process of doing wrong and get caught and shit goes south I don't care what color you are, you should have not been doing wrong. If you are not doing wrong and shit happens to you then again, I don't care about your color, whoever did the wrong to you needs to be dealt with. Racism exists and prejudice exists and its going to exist as long as we make everything a damn racial issue. I don't care if its David Duke or Al Sharpton... stop feeding the racial ignorance and it will have less of an effect in your life. Damnit can't we all just get along.
^^^^^ Poppy....I like you more and more every day.
(Edit: maybe....in 3 years....we can double up on Angel. That would be fun.)
I could write reams and reams on this....most wouldn't get it and most would be pissed off.
I have two teens. For years they didn't even know what races were and never even thought twice about color, accents, slanted eyes, .....whatever.
Unfortunately, they know all about it now....fully informed by the races themselves.
These problems will last as long as negative behavior exists and a large portion of any race keeps crying for special attention.
Same here and I'm doing my three year countdown brother
I'm with you on the children issue also. I've raised my son to be a strong, proud, intelligent and articulate man. He knows that some will not accept him in some situations because of his race but I refuse to let him allow race to define who he is. I am giving him opportunities to travel the world so he can see life from a much broader perspective and it works. Not everyone agrees with me and that's fine but I know who and what I am and it is so much more than my skin color and if others can't see past that then its their loss not mine.
.....stop feeding the racial ignorance and it will have less of an effect in your life. Damnit can't we all just get along.
Hell yeah poppy, I'll drink to that... I'm just thankful for the presence of all the big booty ebony hotties in Houston that comprise about 75% of this "white boys" reviews.....
Hell yeah poppy, I'll drink to that... I'm just thankful for the presence of all the big booty ebony hotties in Houston that comprise about 75% of this "white boys" reviews.....
Lmao and I love the sexy latinas and hot white girls that see past my skin color long enough to see dollar signs...they don't have to like me just love me for the moment lol
We didn't come up with either word. Those are terms your forefather used to classify us, among others, but I digress.
