Like most of you, I have spent considerable time this week thinking about the grand jury decision in Ferguson, MO. Along with you, I have seen a variety of reactions to the decision, and I watched Michael Browns parents on CBS This Morning. I did not witness the incident, so my thoughts are based on my perceptions and some recent reading. I just finished The Bone House by Greg Iles. It is a work of fiction set in Natchez, Mississippi, where Iles himself grew up. One of the characters is a newspaper reporter who has been researching and writing about the unsolved murders of 4 black men in the 1960s. Mr. Iles based this fictitious account on an actual murder of a black shoe store owner in 1964. You can read the articles about this cold case in the Concordia Sentinel under the Cold Case Project tab at the papers home page. Both the novel and the authors comments at the end of it confirm my belief that racism does, indeed, still live in America. Part of the reason is cultural, and part of the reason is that race is so visible. We cannot tell what religion or political philosophy someone embraces simply by looking at him, but we can generally identify his race. We dont know if he thinks differently than we do, but we can tell if he looks different. Until we engage another person in conversation, we dont know how similar to us he or she may be. America may have made some progress in its treatment of those who are not obviously non-Hispanic Caucasian, but stereotypes, both positive and negative, exist. Asians must be good at math, and black people must be good athletes or dancers. You know the stereotypes associated with native Americans and Hispanic citizens. Yes, our justice system is likely a harsher reality for people of color, but does that automatically apply to every case? I dont know. I do know that 18-year-olds dont always make the best decisions. Ive raised a few; I know that they say things and perform actions that, were they a few years older, would be said or done with more consideration. For any parent to claim, My child would never do that is magical thinking. npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124119468 This is a link to an NPR program about the teen brain. Its not fully cooked. Could it be that Michael Brown reacted to the officer in a manner that can be explained by his age? Does that excuse the officers actions? Again, I dont know; I wasnt there. Do police officers who must interact with the public have training in adolescent psychology? Whenever a tragedy like this occurs, theres blame enough to spare. There are also numerous lessons to learn. To automatically label this officer a Killer Cop or the young man a cigar thief headed for a life of crime is a sure way to perpetuate stereotypes and a variety of isms. Im a Libra, so I tend to weigh big ideas like this for a long time before I settle on a philosophy that I can adopt and live with. I will continue to do so with this case.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 23:26:52 +0000
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