There’s been significant backlash to how citizens of Ferguson have reacted to the court ruling on Darren Wilson’s punishment — or lack thereof.
Most of the commentary has been condemning the people of Ferguson for ?destroying their hometown.
Not surprisingly, most everyone who takes this attitude is a white person, with little to no understanding of what it means to be discriminated against because of his or her skin color.
These are also the same people who seem to believe that whatever’s happening in Ferguson right now is not related to race.
If you’re reading this, and you’re a white person, you will likely have no idea what black people in Ferguson are going through. Or any minority of any kind, anywhere in the world. You can’t even relate to them.
And you never will.
It’s a struggle we will ?never understand.
For white people, race isn’t even an issue in daily life. That’s how easy we have it. For people in Ferguson and across the country who are considered minorities, every day can be potentially dangerous and violent.
As many of you have probably seen plastered on the Internet, it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said a riot is the language of the unheard.
While I don’t normally condone that kind of destruction, I wouldn’t immediately disparage against it because I’m just a white guy.
I can’t even imagine the fury of living in a world where it’s OK for everyone to pretend that your race doesn’t affect the quality of your life, and then watch as the people put in place to protect you discriminate against you because of your race.
I do prefer peaceful protests, but as the people in Ferguson and those who participated in the race ?riots of the 1960’s will tell you, peaceably assembling doesn’t attract much media attention and thus public ?attention.
Yes, there are honest, hard-working business owners who lost it all in the riots and lootings. As with any conflict, there are casualties, and it’s not as if the people of Ferguson don’t understand this.
In fact, Ferguson citizens went out the morning after the riots to clean up and ?rebuild.
If you aren’t familiar with race relations in this country, familiarize yourself. If you don’t know the media’s role in perpetuating racism since the founding of this country, it’s time to educate yourself.
White people and black people are different, and that’s OK. But it’s time we stop pretending that racism is not alive and well in America.
it results, as we have seen, in explosive violence.
Taking the wise words of the Washington Post’s Sally Kohn, benefiting from white privilege is automatic. Defending white privilege is a choice.
If you’re still trying to convince yourself that this isn’t a race issue, then you’re part of the problem. If you believe that black people are somehow against white people in all of this, again, you’re actively looking for a way to promote your white privilege.
Learn our nation’s rich history of perpetual racism, admit you have no idea what it’s like to be anything but a white person and stop judging people for taking action against a broken ?system.
michoman@indiana.edu
