Racism. It is a very sensitive topic to tackle, say the wrong thing, you're racist. Say the right thing, you're racist. It's true you know. It's a lose, lose as white male for me to talk racism, but let's give it the ol' college try shall we.
When my daughter comes home from school super excited each day, she babbles on about things her, and her friends had done all day. She mentions the names of all her friends and how awesome life is. Last school year I was a volunteer on one of her class field trips so I had the privilege of meeting all of these fine young people. When we got there my little lady started to introduce me to all of her friends. Some were white, some black, some Latino, and some were most likely aliens from planet "pick my nose and eat it all day". These kids ran and played all day. They talked about all sorts of things that I'm sure they thought were super important, and not once did any of them treat another person any different because of the color of their skin. Things will never be as simple for those kids as it was right at that moment in time, before they let the world tell them that people are not equal. We as a people are not born to discriminate, we are slowly influenced by the world around us to do so.
My grandfather was and still is a very racist man. I find that older generations are mostly that way. Something very few people acknowledge though, is that was real racism, compared to what it is today. Back in those days people still believed that blacks were an inferior race, a lesser breed of human, that was not capable of the same things as white people. In today's society, I truly believe that thought has been nearly eliminated. What I see in this generation is discrimination. Let's be real here, discrimination happens between people of all race and color. Black people discriminate against white people just as much as whites to blacks, or whites to Latino, or Latino to black, or Asian to whites, you get the picture. Discrimination isn't just about race either. People are discriminated against because they are poor, overweight, short, tall, red haired ect. There are so many forms of discrimination it's insane. Although discrimination happens between people of all races, sizes and shapes, why does it only become a major issue when it is a white person discriminating? News coverage, protests, ect. I am in no way defending discriminatory actions, but if fairness is the name of the game, let's be logical and acknowledge these things.
The recent events in ferguson are only gaining media coverage because of what has been perceived by the black community as "racial profiling" leading to the death of an African American man. (Notice I say man, because the media and protestors keep calling him a child. He was 18, legally a grown man.) The fact is people are being killed all over the world and all over the US all day, every day. The only deaths that seem to gain all this attention are when white people kill black people. There is a huge double standard there. When is the last time a story about a black person killing a white person hit the news? Exactly. This is not just in cases of tragedy. It is in everyday life. As long as African Americans hold on to the thought that everything white people do is race related, progress will not be made. Sometimes it's just as simple as a white cop in a scuffle with a black man, the suspect is resisting arrest, and the officer who fears for his safety uses excessive force. It's not an execution or murder as protestors would say. It doesn't have to be race related, but that's what gets news ratings, so sure, go for it.
Ofcourse not all "minorities" think this way. There are a lot of people who see tragedy and death as just that. In the Michael brown case it is a tragedy that a life was taken, and also a tragedy that a husband and father took that life. An officer of the law who has been tasked with justice and keeping the peace, made contact with the suspect. That very man, appointed and given the full authority to uphold the law, asked the suspect to not walk in the middle of the street, a seemingly reasonable request, and the suspect did not cooperate. A scuffle ensued and the suspect ended up dead. I can guarantee you that if Michael brown had cooperated from the start, he would still be alive today. The reason why he didn't cooperate ofcourse, is that he had recently robbed a store, and was anticipating an arrest and jail time. The same can be said for Eric garner. If he was willing to 100% cooperate with police, he would still be alive. Excessive force in both cases? Absolutely. Preventable? Absolutely. Racial? Absolutely not.
Police officers don't wake up in the morning hoping to kill a black man for no reason and end up possibly losing their job and serving jail time. It just doesn't happen. I'm sure they do wake up hoping to protect and serve and do their jobs to the best of their ability. I'm sure telling someone not to walk in the middle of the street would fall under that. If it was a man or woman of any other race walking in the middle of the street, a cop would use the same procedure. If said suspect resisted arrest and posed physical harm to the officer? Same outcome. The only thing that would possibly be different is the amount of force used. Brown was apparently a 6'4" male, if someone that big is fighting with you, you might get scared too. I do think the officer used excessive force, most definetly. But I don't believe it was because of the suspects race.
The rioting and looting in ferguson is not racial either, it is directly related to mob mentality. If you put a bunch of people together who feel wronged and are angry, chaos will ensue, no matter what the race.
Another major issue is the media. In their attempt to create ratings they will say whatever is necessary, and report untruthful information if need be. Of race wars make ratings, they are all in, no matter what damage it does or how many years of progress it destroys.
So what have I done in this blog other than make myself look racist? I'm not sure. I'm not sure of what the solution is either. I'm not a public leader or politician(thank god). I would challenge you all to be good people first and white or black, second.
I genuinely believe that if minorities thought of themselves as equal, we would move in the right direction toward equality.
So to all the humans who have read this. I hope this does not anger most of you. I hope you take my words the way I was trying to project them. I hope you look at every angle of situation before judging another person. Fathers are fathers, moms are moms, sons are sons, crooks are crooks, killers are killers, no matter what race. We are all human beings, and all have the ability to see the good in others, and in ourselves before judging. I'm not perfect, but for the sake of my children and future generations, we all need to try harder.
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