Since early August, when white officer Darren Wilson, shot
unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, my Facebook Newsfeed has
been a sea of statuses and reposted articles regarding the racial implications of
this tragedy. The social media posts calmed down for a short amount of time,
only to flare up again when the grand jury announced on November 24th
that it was not indicting Officer Wilson. Rather than aggressively opinionated
posts, my Newsfeed is now plagued with articles about Brown’s autopsy reports
and the forensic “facts” that proved Wilson’s guilt or innocence.
We as a
divided nation can debate the decision of this case as long as we want, but the
terrible events in Ferguson, MO, are merely a symptom of the bigger police
brutality problem in this country. Brown supporters are using this incident as
a way to bring this problem to light, while Wilson supporters are using the
court’s decision as a reason to ignore their protests. At the end of the day,
whether or not Darren Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown, we as a
nation must recognize that if we let it, this event can spark a very necessary
conversation across the country about abuse of power, racial division, and
oppressed voices. As tragic as it is, events like this, events that shake the
population, are the backbone of progression.
I very much agree with you that regardless of opinion, and stance on the matter, there is a lot more we need to recognize about situations like these. Yes, this could be seen solely as a racially motivated crime, or solely as a police brutality crime, but we have to look at this one instance as reflective as something that goes on everyday-- to blacks, to whites, to people of all races within our nation. The government oppresses us all, some more than others, and we have to move forward from these as one rather than as separate citizens of the same nations.
ReplyDeleteWhile the last sentence in this post is uncomfortable to admit, I, too, believe that it is the truth. We must all come together- people who represent different opinions- so that we can healthily converse and debate what happened in the Ferguson case, as well as its' representation of the much larger problems which exist in our society.
ReplyDeleteI agree that these instances are what lead to progression, and in order to have progression we must work together. I also believe that instances like these can also divide people very easily if the right tactics aren't used to address the way in which me must progress. Out of these situations we need new leaders to emerge that will take these problems head on and unite the people to fight the whole as one and realize that the brutality is wrong in many ways.
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