As I sat there and listened to the prosecutor say the words “no indictment,” tears filled my eyes.
I was asked, “Did you expect differently?”
No, of course I did not, but I had hoped — not hope for justice for Michael Brown but hope that this country had made progress — that America respected black men enough to say, “Killing an unarmed black man is a crime.” Yet, according to America, it is not a crime.
The moment my tears of pain turned into tears of anger was the moment I read the hurtful, ignorant and inconsiderate comments from my less than educated Facebook friends.
“You all are not lawyers, and you do not know all the evidence. Trust the system.”
What system? The system that was created to screw over African-Americans? The system that sprayed us with water hoses and put German Shepherds on us? Trust that system? What do you all not understand?
Our relationships with police officers will never be the same as yours. The respect you have for the “justice” system will not mirror our disdain because your pigment does not mirror our pigment, and your history sure does not mirror our history.
Your history is not filled with the “other race” being on top. You were never owned by us. You were never sold by us, and if you were killed by us, it was definitely considered a crime.
You call the people of Ferguson animals because of how they are responding to the situation, but some of you fail to remember that you sold us like animals. You fail to empathize because your judgement is so clouded by your privilege.
If seeing the American flag burn hurts more than knowing that an unarmed boy was shot at least six times, then maybe this is the time to check your privilege. Because what you seem to not understand is that the same way the American flag means protection and liberty for you, it means slavery and persecution for many African-Americans.
The “liberty and justice for all” allowed to whites in America is not what we as blacks experience.
We are not always treated like Americans; we are treated as blacks. Therefore, we are black, and we will speak, scream and march for our brothers.
Racism is an issue in America that cannot be ignored. We can not pretend it does not exist, and we sure cannot be “color blind.” It is an issue that has permeated our educational, social and judicial systems. It will only discontinue crippling our country when whites accept their privilege, and blacks accept their lack thereof.
It’s not your fault you are privileged, but it is your fault you are unaware of it.
You cannot change it, but you can learn to understand it. Learn to listen to the way African-Americans feel without deciding that they are only playing the race card and that their feelings are invalid.
Think about how much you love and support the beauty of black culture but how quickly you are disgusted with black people and their struggle. Everyone wants to be black until it’s dark.
Well it’s dark, and this is the time to either be the light or shut up. Either you empathize with the black culture that you love to bump in your car and watch on your TV, or you be silent and watch our pain, but do not taunt us. Do not call us the n-word or animals, and do not dare say that this boy got what he deserved.
And blacks, we got the short end of the stick, as always, but as Papa Pope said, “You have to be twice as good to get half of what they have.”
So what does that mean?
Bust your butt to bust the stereotype. We cannot change how they think, but we can act in such a way to make their thoughts become a lie.
Does that mean change who you are?
No.
Embrace and develop who you are. Become the people you have been quoting these past days. Become Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois. Become the system, and rip it to shreds from the inside out. Play the game and beat them at it.
On Nov. 24, the judicial system failed us again. American citizens, do not fail each other.
“Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
We all have voices; do not allow history to determine which voices are heard and unheard.
Rachel Granger is a junior international studies major from Pearl.
