You say that the lack of indictment in the State of Missouri vs. Darren Wilson case is perfectly reasonable. You say he had plenty of reason to kill Michael Brown. You have some reason to stand on Wilson’s side. You have an opinion. OK. I’m not going to go there. You believe Wilson was in the right, and no one will change your mind. What I do want is for you to think about why cases like this one, the Trayvon Martin case and the many instances in which African-American men are killed by police create so much controversy.
You may feel attacked by people who argue that these deaths and trials are a product of institutional racism. Many of you seem offended at the notion that institutional racism even exists.
Why?
Are you afraid to acknowledge that the US was built for whites on the backs of everyone else? Are you afraid to accept that racism and its effects didn’t evaporate sometime before you were born?
As people who live in Mississippi, you should see better than anyone the harmful legacy of the past.
Mississippi was completely built on slave labor and plantations. After the Civil War, 55 percent of Mississippians were former slaves. It’s no surprise that many of the plantation owners who had supported the Confederacy in the war believed that African-American men and women were still property. Because of this, white men in Mississippi actively worked against black Mississippians.
The restrictions placed on what black southerners could and could not do or own coupled with the purely agricultural infrastructure gave rise to sharecropping. Most of these families ended up living as sharecroppers, forever in debt to their landlords without any notion of upward mobility. Black Codes put even further restrictions on what could or could not be owned or done by black southerners.
African-American Civil Rights leaders went through great pains to oppose the continued oppression through the 19th and 20th centuries and achieved many legal victories along the way. Unfortunately, during this time not a single black person was afforded the same upward mobility, safety and freedom from racism that whites had. This legacy continues today.
I am white and have not experienced racism. However, I do know that the best way to understand something is to listen, read and speak only when it’s appropriate.
I’ve read stories of black mothers who are afraid every time their son walks out the door. I know that one in three black men can expect to go to prison at least once in their lifetime. There’s also the continued push against social programs that would at least give economically depressed people of all ethnic and racial groups some breathing room.
Before this case, I somehow had assumed that most of people I’ve known most of my life just weren’t that racist. Sure, some of them don’t like that I’m gay, and many of them need to accept that the vast majority of Muslims aren’t involved with ISIS, but I thought they had this one beat. Many people they’ve known their whole life are black.
How could they immediately dismiss someone as a “thug”? How can you pretend that racism is barely a problem anymore? How could you feel entitled to say that black people have no legitimate concerns about systemic racism? Why can’t you accept that regardless of this case, there is a real problem with how many white people treat the issue of race?
When black voices speak up, listen to what they have to say, keep an open mind and don’t automatically become defensive.
I do not for a second believe that I am perfect and that I have never been guilty of racism of any kind. All of us have benefited from this system. All of us have discriminated based on race.
Your job is not necessarily to feel guilty or attacked but to know better. It is no one’s responsibility but your own to make sure that you aren’t perpetuating or ignoring discriminatory practices.
Consider this your indictment.
Daniel Hammer
Senior education major
Horn Lake
