My Time in Ferguson

I just got back from today’s march in Ferguson, protesting the recent murder of Black student Michael Brown by the Ferguson PD.  

     This tragedy seems to be a pretty straightforward case of the police brutality that, according to the Malcolm X Grassroots Project, ends in the death of a Black man every 28 hours.  We had a lot of different signs and chants present- it’s been a long time since I was at a rally this size, and the only previous ones were to watch someone speak, not to move and chant.  My voice was definitely out of practice- prominently used were “hands up-don’t shoot!” and the usuals like “No justice-no peace”.  It was an intense atmosphere, and I’m glad this many people are still able to be outraged when a young Person of Color is killed in cold blood. 

     The attendant release of information designed to turn media even more firmly against Brown was, regrettably, a familiar tactic.  What we know to rebut it is that the murderer did not yet know of the crime in which Brown was a suspect, so the shooting had nothing to do with it.  An unarmed person was killed at 35 feet from his assailant, where he really couldn’t pose any threat.  The whole confrontation would probably not have occurred if Brown had been white, and it almost certainly wouldn’t have turned lethal.  This is an example of the systemic racial oppression that characterizes our society, and every leftist in town should have been out there this entire week protesting it, and the glacial pace of the investigation.  I regret only coming out today, but I’m not brave.  The ones who have been out there for six nights being gassed and shot at are heroes, even if some looting is going on.

     There were a lot of other white people at the march, which was encouraging in that it showed anger over injustice can in some cases be enough to establish cross-racial solidarity, but we need to be careful not to overvalue our contribution- we are there to lessen the shame we feel at being part of this oppressive system; our participation is secondary.  We cannot speak for the oppressed as well as they can speak for themselves, and we should only attempt to do so when there is no viable alternative.  If we in our positions of privilege can help our Black comrades in their struggle, all well and good, but we need to make sure we never pat ourselves on the back too much, or allow a shared moment blind us to the reality of wildly different experiences.

     The event itself went well enough.  I got a pleasant surprise when I realized I was standing twenty feet behind Jesse Jackson, who got the crowd going pretty well before we began marching- worked up a lot of positive energy, talking/chanting about getting back up after being knocked down and the like.  He really shows that he cares effectively, and is still an effective leader for any righteous protest.  I was a little disappointed with him later- when we reached the destination, the parking lot of the Church of Greater St. Mark, he began asking for donations to the church.  A woman walked up and told him that not all the marchers were believers, and he left immediately after that- he could well have argued his point, or asked the comrade to speak with him after the speech he was going to give.  Still, it was cool to see him.

     One sign that really caught my eye was one of those cardboard cutouts of the president, with a placard on it reading "Where are you?"  While his policies and general tone have often been centrist and evasive, we know Obama is capable of empathizing with the families of the victims- he's shown us this especially after the Martin murder in 2012, and a visit could be a prelude to something truly transformative- like the administration reducing the military-grade heavy weaponry provided to police departments, preferably combined with some real changes in policing values.  I can't imagine anything decent ever passing this House, but some Democrats and Rand Paul are talking about it a lot in the Senate.  (I'm always a little disconcerted when Paul says anything I agree with, but there it is), and having a no-longer passive executive on this issue could bring about some rapid benefit.  I can't say I'm hopeful, but calling the president out and asking him to come to Ferguson is a good tactic.

     This is a good moment to disseminate information on everything from police militarization to racial profiling to economic policies which maintain unequal divisions of wealth between Black and white.  All I’ll say at this point is that this is just a very visible symptom of America’s disease of racism.  Now that Nixon has reinstated a “no-blacks after sundown” policy, we see even clearer the effort of society to shift the focus from the systemic, racist violence to a few broken windows in fast food franchises.  Anything to keep white America from realizing the Black community has a list of grievances that would take 400 years to read and understand.  Now we should all keep the pressure on- go to what demonstrations we can, call elected officials to demilitarize police, donate to bail funds, whatever, but we must also keep this level of vigilance constant, and try to do our part to improve the status quo.  Much of what hope there is for meaningful change on any number of other issues first start with the erosion of racial boundaries and oppression, especially the climate of fear cultivated by law enforcement.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

UPDATE- I just got back from holding a vigil outside the County Prosecutor's office- his name is Bob McCulloch and he's got a history of ignoring cases of police shooting Black folks, has numerous police officers among his immediate family, and has firmly opposed the addition of the supposedly more moderate highway patrol to protest prevention.  He's also got a history of opposing Black candidates for office- by no means is this conclusive, but we can all see a pattern here, and this is not a man I want deciding anything about this case.