When the Ferguson saga unfolded, I overheard my white colleagues at work justifying the shooting of Mike Brown by Darren Wilson. I was not surprised, truth be told, as over the years I have overheard similar conversations amongst white colleagues at other jobs & public spaces. There really are two Americas or, as the late great scholar W.E.B Dubois observed,
..gifted with second-sight in this American world, — a world which . . . only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
As it waits to hear if a grand jury will indict Darren Wilson for shooting down Michael Brown, Ferguson is more than ever a volatile amalgam of forces drawn up against each other: Governor Jay Nixon announced the use of state power against anyone uppity enough to challenge the decision (he's already pre-emptively declared a state of emergency), law enforcement loudly gears up for the alleged threat of extremists and Communists (?!) joining protests & the KKK threatens "lethal force" against "terrorists masquerading as 'peaceful protesters,'" Madness. In A Communiqué from Ferguson (above), a powerful new 9-minute video from the community and its myriad activist groups, people describe the explosive feeling on the ground. Above all, they insist that the wrongs represented by Michael Brown's murder - Ferguson's failings and abuses and systemic racism - are "an American problem." They've also launched the hashtag #FergusonSpeaks. It's long past time somebody listen.
Let's pray...
OneLove
:::MME:::
