I need to say something about Ferguson. This essay is as comprehensive as I could make it while still being succinct. It’s directed at many of my dear friends who have varying opinions about the Grand Jury’s decision that they have been sharing through social networking. It is also directed at the broader population of the country I call home.
There are seven things you all need to know about Ferguson and what you can do about it.
1.) You need to know with whom you are aligned
Let’s all take a moment to realize where we are placed within an American politic so polarized that it is seemingly impossible to disassociate with bias no matter how objective we feel ourselves to be. As you would see yourself amongst family at Thanksgiving dinner, look at the bodies around you: If you are with Darren Wilson and you support the Grand Jury’s decision not to indict him, then you sit amongst The Ferguson Police Department, Fox News, Brietbart.com, the militarization of the American Police force, the Klu Klux Klan, Peter King (R-NY), and Conservapedia.com. All of these interest have supported the decision and stood in solidarity with Wilson. If you do too, then this your family.
On the other hand, if you stand with Michael Brown’s family and the protestors in Ferguson, then you stand with the American Labor Movement, Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-MI), Professor Cornel West, Moveon.org, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Amnesty International. All of these interest have supported the indictment and stood in solidarity with Brown’s family. If you do too, then this your family.
I am proud to call this camp my family, though like any family, I don’t have to agree with everything they say. Neither do any of you.
2.) You Need to Know that, like family, we don’t have to all agree and none of us is innocent
Everyone reading this has done things that are illegal. Everyone reading this has done something racist. This is so true for me as well. I am a PhD student at a R1 research institution, but I have no doubt that I would be dead or in jail if I had been born black. We need to acknowledge that race is a fiction and that we are all guilty of something. We need to acknowledge that people of color face harder consequences for the crime of being human.
It is well documented that black bodies are more likely to be convicted of crimes, but that they are no more likely than white, Latino, Asian, or others to actually commit a crime. This is possible because of racism 2.0: “Broad Sympathy for Some; Broader Skepticism for Others.” A more comprehensive view shows that our socioeconomic status is a more reliable determiner of our likelihood to commit different kinds of crime, which is to say in short that poor people are more likely to rob a convenience store while rich people are more likely to steal imaginary capital and cause an economic meltdown we now call the “Great Recession of 2008.” We have all seized opportunity under dubious circumstance, and we’ve rationalized our innocence in any number of ways.
Instead, we can accept our guilt. Some of us are. NFL star Benjamin Watson, whose post went viral, called us all “sinners,” rationalizing injustice through the lens of Christian religious doctrine. As an atheist, I would rationalize this propensity to sin as the product of social engineering which invisibly directs us with the illusion of choice. If that’s too complicated to you fathom, dear reader, then just remember your youth, and admit that #iwasnoangeleither. Then move on.
No angel either. The common thread through both points of view is that mistakes are the product of free will. Free will means making small choices under difficult circumstances. These choices are always the best choice we felt we could make at the time, and they are rarely the choice we’d make again. In this way, we are all Michael Brown and we are all Darren Wilson. Yet as long as the consequences for such actions are inconsistent, then we are also not all Michael Brown, and we are also not all Darren Wilson. While no one is an angel, black people are far more likely to die for it.
3.) You need to know that it is possible that Darren Wilson killed in self defense
Forensic science has been able to say with near certainty that Wilson killed Michael Brown in self defense. The ballistics report showed that Brown was in the Wilson’s police cruiser, and that Wilson put a bullet through Brown’s hand to force his removal from car. It confirmed that Brown’s thumb was struck with a bullet from Wilson’s gun, which sprayed Brown’s blood within the cabin. The fact that the bullet went through the a-pillar confirms that Wilson struggled to defend himself from Brown’s attack. The fact that Brown choked a store clerk less than an hour before over a pack of cigarillos confirms that he was willing to use the degree of lethal force possible with one’s bare hands.
4.) You need to know that the same evidence suggests that Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood
You need to know that the same evidence suggests that Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood, and that it took the Grand Jury’s dismissal of every eyewitness to conclude that Wilson was in the right. Ballistics confirmed the struggle in Wilson’s car, but it can’t conclude how he got there. Brown’s friend claims that Wilson told them to “get the fuck on the sidewalk” before telling Brown to “get the fuck over here.” Wilson’s radio was on the wrong channel, which is why Wilson said he couldn’t call for help against Brown. This fact also proves that he could not have been aware of the robbery committed by Brown prior to his encounter with the teens. It’s possible that Wilson’s intuition kicked in by observing Brown’s body language, but it is more plausible that he profiled Brown based upon his race. The Ferguson Police Force has a history of abuse in their own community, which is the context of which these protest are happening—sparked by the last straw of Brown’s death. America is a country where black bodies are killed with impunity because of the racist assumption that they are more prone to violence and crime. Wilson described Brown as “a demon,” which says explicitly that he was something other than human. Brown was a 17-year-old boy with a loving family that continues to mourn him.
5.) You need to accept that Michael Brown did not deserve to die
Even if Brown was guilty of every crime he was accused of, none of those crimes even in aggregate would result in the death penalty. Even if he is guilty of petty theft, jaywalking, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer--and we'll never know because you cannot convict the dead--he did not to deserve to die.
Treyvon Martin, John Crawford III, Tamir Rice, and thousands others have been killed for no reason other than they were suspected of criminality. Captain America tells us that “the punishment should come after the crime.” He might add that the punishment should fit the crime.
6.) You need to accept that it’s unlikely Wilson’s conviction would have solved the problems in Ferguson, and neither will rioting
Darren Wilson needs to change, but so do we for remaining largely complicit. Some of us tried by moving to indict Wilson. They did so because convicting Darren Wilson may have set a legal precedent. Future lawyers could then have drawn from the ruling to support their cases against other police officers who profile Americans based on their race or socioeconomic status. They justice could be made incrementally for victim’s families. It could have been a start.
Rioting will of course not change the decision. Committing crime only confirms the racists suspicions, and creates doubt for the person who is on the fence about the whole ordeal. Rioting means that the store clerk whom Brown robbed before his death now has to endure the destruction of his business. Rioting creates the opportunity for a group of white people to burn down the Brown’s Family’s church and probably get away with it because the cops there are already looking for every reason arrest or kill black people.
But paradoxically so, rioting means the public has to pay attention to the injustices in Ferguson, and it forces the police to respond. Rioting won't solve the problem, but rioting keeps the controversy alive until something can be done.
7.) So here’s what needs to stop
No more racist caparisons through social media. You can post videos of a black man attacking a police officer and say dumb shit like “this is why Wilson did what he did.” We’ve already discussed how we are all guilty of crime. You can post pictures of OJ and say dumb shit like “white people didn’t riot,” but we’ve already covered how change doesn’t happen when the downtrodden behave themselves. We might add that white people riot over dumb shit like football games and pumpkins. No more nonsense about “black on black” crime without acknowledging crime that is white on white and white on black. It’s not that these assertions aren’t true, it’s that they are only a piece of a much larger puzzle.
If you do, then you are obscuring a conversation that is already beyond you, and you are claiming an innocence you cannot claim--and you are perpetuating racism. You are characterizing a people and a culture as inherently violent. I just need to call it out. The people posting this shit are the people I know with the most extensive criminal records. So no more defending Wilson as a person who needed to shoot a 17-year-old over six times to defend himself. This only perpetuates the same thinking that taught Darren Wilson to be judge and jury and executioner rather than to be a cop.
And no more assuming that Wilson is solely to blame for what happened. We have already established that the Ferguson Police—indeed all police and the American public—are all to blame in some respect. We are all to blame. I am. You are.
8.) So conversely, we need to accept responsibility for our part in the murder of Michael Brown
I argue that what really needs to happen is for the Ferguson Police to admit the truth: they failed Darren Wilson, Michael Brown, and the city of Ferguson—and they continue to fail them. Instead of addressing the community they serve, they sent tanks and guns. Instead of addressing what was duplicitous about Wilson’s story, they released a tape of Brown robbing a convenience store even though it had nothing to do with why Brown was stopped. They failed Wilson but not addressing the racism of its practices. Wilson said he didn’t shoot Brown with a taser because he doesn’t know how to use one, which we might interpret as a failure of his police training. Fuck. Wilson doesn’t even know how to set a radio channel. Training could have prevented Wilson from profiling Brown, the central act which provoked the attack the resulted in Wilson’s abuse of power.
If we are going to indict without question that Brown was a robber and an assailant, then we need to indict the Ferguson Police for failing to bring Brown before the law. No one , but that is how they have told Ferguson they intend to act. They’ve all but explicitly, that is, if the refusal to indict Wilson was not explicit enough.
As a writer, this is how I take responsibility for my fault in the matter. This is how I affect change and how I combat injustice. Nothing I’ve said here is false, and I challenge anyone to find falsehood in what I have shown. I’ve given you a way of thinking that is comprehensive and correct. Now, what will you do?