I spent most of the day on a self-imposed television and computer hiatus, sorting my stuff and packing. Every Sunday I look forward the repeats of WKRP that run at 10 and 1030 but I had lost track of time and didnt turn on the tv until after 1030, and what do I see? I think that we still have not reached the apex. The family autopsy is coming tomorrow, why oh why didnt the police release the information last week? Black people and white people live in two separate, parallel, and often totally polarized worlds. Personally, I find it sad that so many white people seem to be unable to grasp the privilege their melanin gives them. How differently white people are treated by the police. (Was Michael Brown more of a threat than Cliven Bundy?) And I feel sad that so many people just write off the validity of any experience but their own. (Well I am a good person and have never stolen or had a problem with the police so obviously anyone that has should be prepared to be shot and killed. Wha???) Part of what we are seeing among the rioters and looters is the many angry young black men that living in a world where they know they could be sent to jail or shot for crimes, or even the suspicion of crimes, that white defendants would be let off for, are instead openly engaging the police, embracing the threat of death or imprisonment that they face every day. And the police, as with the kids that flashmob the Loop, dont seem to ever realize that the tactics that should work-- and do mostly work, even among low-income and disenfranchised white kids-- dont work in the black community. These kids are harassed all the time. They have seen their brothers and fathers and neighbours gunned down by the police and gangs too often. They have no future stake in this society- no hope (except for a few exceptionally dedicated and/or talented and/or lucky) of that future big paying job and nice county home (where they will still have black skin and be viewed with suspicion by the police and white neighbours). And while I am glad to hear that all these politicians and civic leaders are out in the crowd talking to people face to face, it is deplorable that it took something like this for them to FINALLY address these disparities and get to know the people that they work for. How come we only see these public servants when it is campaign time? St> Louis city is 49.5 percent African American and 46.5 percent European American, out of 318,000 inhabitants. Who pays for all those wealthy lawyers and judges in Clayton? Who busses the table at the country club (and takes the bus home) where McCulloch goes to celebrate when he locks up another black man? When the courtrooms are filled with black faces and mostly white judges, and black representatives are found mostly at local levels, and the wealth of the city is tipped to the white south and the poverty to the black north, this is the obvious outcome. This is not just about the racial disparity in the Ferguson PD. This is about the grandfathers who were the first men of their families to have the right to vote and go to white schools and sit anywhere on the bus. I hear many white people tell proud stories of what their ancestors accomplished, still grieve losses or wrongs done to their ancestors, but blithely suggest that race shouldnt matter and black people should just get over slavery, segregation, lynchings, and being treated like second class citizens. For those that disparage the strong, shared, African-American culture, including what people call Ebonics I ask, do you speak in a way that shows your Bavarian heritage (those harsh, displaces r sounds after a-- warsh the clothes?) and yet disparage a people that was not allowed to learn to read and write, was in fact threatened or called uppity if they did speak as an educated white person, and recieved sub-standard schooling until the 50 years ago (within living memory)? If you lived in a world that only grudgingly gave you only a small share of the opportunities available to someone born with less melanin in their skin, is it possible that you might be angry, too? The rioters may not be right, but just like the racist white men that are attracted to police work for the power they will have over black people (and there are a lot of them), they are not going to go away. We have got to find a way to deal with this situation and remedy it. And the looting, same thing, if you are surrounded by people trying hard to raise their family and work 40 hours a week and still have to get EBT to eat, or where a minimum wage job will actually put you in a worse situation economically than welfare and relief, looting is very tempting. I hope one day soon we will live in a world where no one needs to fear going hungry or not having a place to live or not having a job (I dont think work should be based on whether the person with more money and who is going to profit from your labour thinks you are acceptable, work should be a basic human right). Medical care should not be based on what an individual can pay, but what is best for society-- healthy, well cared for people. We need sustainable wages and gauranteed income or other safety net to keep people out of poverty. Let the richie riches keep their yachts, but lets close the income gap from the bottom up enough to remove dangerous poverty-- deadly poverty. Lets eliminate the threat of death and suffering for everyone and see if that doesnt eliminate a whole lotta crime. I am still hopeful that this will bring about greater dialogue about life on the other side of the colour lines, but I also dont feel like this situation is over, or getting better. Peace out peeps.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 05:54:58 +0000
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