After hearing that Darren Wilson, a Caucasian American at the age of 28 was not indicted, I was disappointed, but not surprised. Seeing that the United States of America in 2014 was still subject to racial injustice makes me feel uncomfortable. Watching St. Louis, MO being burned and looted makes my skin crawl as I sit by my computer looking up the public's reaction.
How do I feel about the whole decision? As an African American woman with an African American male significant other makes me even more skeptical of raising children in the United States. Especially with related cases like Trayvon Martin (Florida) and Eric Garner (New York). Just seeing that things like this could happen close to home makes me queasy. It is indeed sad that sooner or later African American people who are educated might be targeted next.
Seeing news reports from the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani makes me see that America should stop seeing other issues that, yes should be addressed, but are not exactly relevant to the topic at hand. Here is the video I am talking about here. In this video, Rudy Giuliani states that “White police officers wouldn't be there, if you weren't killing each other.”
It is true that there is a lot of black on black crime, but to bring up black on black crime when the issue at hand was about white on black crime is unnecessary. Hearing that line made me sick to the stomach. It makes me sick that people who are in power are glorifying as well as justifying not only white on black crime, but authority privilege. What do I mean by authority privilege? Anything form of abuse of power.
What can we do about fighting both racial privilege and authority privilege? We should come together as people, no matter what race, socioeconomic background and other demographic classifications and report these injustices. True, social media is indeed impactful, but having another one of our American children become a hashtag is extremely disappointing and morbid. Bringing ourselves to loot and commit arson also doesn't help the situation; it however (sadly) gives others reasons why people are classified the way that they are. We should go back to our roots like the Civil Rights Movement and protest these unjust actions by using civil disobedience instead of violent riots and protests. We should have our politicians and police commissions reflect and alter their program in lieu of cases such as Martin, Garner and Brown.
What can we do as educators? What we should always do: hold discussions about these issues. Further educate yourself as well as the students you work with about these issues. They are indeed our future and in order to help reduce incidents like these are to teach your students about the privileges that some have over others.
Until we do come together to fix this problem, my own generation of African American males and females will be subject to racism based off of what the media glorifies and what politicians use to add insult to injury. We will still face demise as America goes in a nosedive backwards in history.
