Ferguson Reflections
1. One of the key factors in thinking about the Michael Brown shooting and its aftermath is empathy. This does not mean "bleeding heart" sympathy. It means, if you're not black, trying to put yourself in the shoes of an African-American person, just a regular citizen. I bet that if they did this most white people who currently see this as an overly-racialized situation, would see it like the black people who are protesting do. But so many people are turned off by what they perceive as political correctness that they immediately reject any suggestion that there might really be a problem here. I understand the impulse, having been burned myself by PC orthodoxy. What I am suggesting is that the same amount of self-respect that a white person would maintain is the same self-respect that calls black Americans to stand up to what clearly is a widespread assault on simple dignity. It's just a fact that black people are treated worse by the police and the legal system. For example, if white people who do drugs were busted at the same rate as blacks, every dorm in the US would suddenly be half empty.
2. Poor whites have it bad, too, of course. As Bryan Stevenson has pointed out, it's better to be rich and guilty in our legal system than it is to be poor and innocent.* That said, I think Michael Brown would still be alive if he were white. And the way he was left dead on the street was an outrage.
3. It's also true, though, that police have an incredibly difficult job, one in which mistakes, even tragic mistakes, will be made. In this case, it seems very, very hard to justify the death of an unarmed person. But we shouldn't just assume malice on the part of police.
4. In a way, the media is overplaying the racial divide in opinions about this case. Even if 70 or 75 percent of black people see this as a case where race is an important factor, that still leaves a lot of other people who agree to some extent with the white people who don't. And the reverse is true. Even if two thirds of white people think this is being over-racialized, that still leaves a lot of white people who agree with the majority black opinion.
* Or, as Bob Dylan sang, "Steal a little and they throw you in jail / Steal a lot and they make you king."
2. Poor whites have it bad, too, of course. As Bryan Stevenson has pointed out, it's better to be rich and guilty in our legal system than it is to be poor and innocent.* That said, I think Michael Brown would still be alive if he were white. And the way he was left dead on the street was an outrage.
3. It's also true, though, that police have an incredibly difficult job, one in which mistakes, even tragic mistakes, will be made. In this case, it seems very, very hard to justify the death of an unarmed person. But we shouldn't just assume malice on the part of police.
4. In a way, the media is overplaying the racial divide in opinions about this case. Even if 70 or 75 percent of black people see this as a case where race is an important factor, that still leaves a lot of other people who agree to some extent with the white people who don't. And the reverse is true. Even if two thirds of white people think this is being over-racialized, that still leaves a lot of white people who agree with the majority black opinion.
* Or, as Bob Dylan sang, "Steal a little and they throw you in jail / Steal a lot and they make you king."
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