The Silent Majority Must Speak Up - A Response To Ferguson From A Privileged College

Welcome to White Suburbia. We find ourselves in a home with a 62" flatscreen setup to the evening news. A tragedy: another young, black man is shot in cold blood. The racism is bad and somebody should try to fix it. Let's help by focusing on this fallen youth and raise awareness that shooting unarmed, black men is racist.

Southern Harlem sees the situation differently. Another sacrifice cut down in his prime all because protocol couldn't be followed. This hurts, and the sound of the shot is heard, as it ripples throughout the community. It's not about the protocol though. It's not about an authoritative, white man shooting a black man who was unarmed. This is about something bigger. It's about turning a blind eye to the problem. Racism isn't just an act of violence. Racism is the culture. It's the news focusing on his color instead of who he was. Racism is bigger than the numbers and statistics we see in the media, it's the mindset we live in.

So why does Ferguson matter? Ferguson itself isn't what is important. This is about a stand being made against racism. It's about the reaction to a string of shootings and its implications. A force that is present in every community struck down five unarmed black men in a month, and the only response was sharing a media story and treating it as an unfortunate event. What the protests in Ferguson represent are the voices of the victims of modern racism. Ignorance is not an excuse to treat an individual as a second class citizen. It's true that the KKK is now a non-relevant body of people, that black citizens have the right to vote, and that we abolished slavery. It is also true that racism is alive and well today. The problem is that racism is so prevalent and so integrated into our system that it is hard to even identify. The question becomes how to explain systematic racism to a silent majority who doesn't understand the damaging effect of our cultural institutions.

Racism is the thoughts in our heads, the system of our education, and the ignorance of a bigger problem. When the shooting of Michael Brown was first reported the media conveyed that there was a young, black male shot by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. This did not make national headlines. Only when we hear that the man is unarmed does it become news, and not because its sad, but rather because its being told as a surprising story. The media specified his race because the story of the black man being unarmed will catch the public off-guard. The first thought that runs through the average citizen's mind when they hear a headline about a black man being shot is that he was armed or a criminal. If we take a closer look at the Trayvon Martin or Jordan Davis cases, the media covered these as issues related to "Stand Your Ground Laws" when the jury and defense never attempted to address that legal scope. What went ignored was that a white man with a gun shot an unarmed black teenager because he felt threatened. Feeling threatened is not a legal defense when it is based around somebody's skin color. Just because someone is black does not mean you can feel threatened by their presence, and by no means does that make shooting them acceptable under any guise.

If we look at why these sentiments exist, it's mostly because of how we perceive racism and how education has played a role in integrating racism into our lives. Our current public school education process is racist on an obvious level, and also on a much more sinister level. Statistics that gets thrown around in discussions about race in relation to education usually are related to graduation rates, drop out rates, population demographics, and grades. Those statistics are all indicators and symptoms of a problem, rather than the problem itself. The fact that we even think dropout rates are the problem is our first racist approach to fighting racism. When we ask why kids dropout of school or get bad grades we get a new idea that begins to touch on the issue. Our education system is disenfranchising on multiple levels to the black community. From the very beginning we demonize certain diction that is usually more prevalent in black communities. A young child may feel lesser or dumber because they are now told the words they use often are used by the uneducated and those destined for failure. A white child doesn't get critiqued on their style of speech. They are never told they are of lesser status. Ultimately this leads to a majority of people who struggle to perceive institutionalized racism. A young child does not think that their language needs to change, but rather that it is part of who they are, so when they are told their language sounds dumb, they believe the teacher saying they are destined for failure. It's policies that critique styles that are prevalent in the black communities. Wearing a baseball cap is not "gang-related", however many public schools ban the wearing of hats because of gang-related activity in the 1990's. This is a response to a lot of black people wearing a certain article of clothing and claiming it makes them look intimidating and gang-affiliated. This is the thinking that contributes to the culture of fear used to justify gunning men down and institutional racism. Not once in my life have I seen anybody identify as part of a gang because they wear a NY Yankees hat.

We can look at a much bigger picture though. These are the subtle things that cause the dropout rates and disenfranchisement of young African-American kids. When we look at a bigger picture we see why white people don't notice it. When we learn about the Civil War, Ghandi, MLK, or any other battle for civil rights and equality we learn that the battle is over and that everybody walked away better-off and we are more inclusive and equal as a nation. We are taught that because black people can now vote, the fight is over and everybody is happy. We are desensitized to viewing racism as existent in today's society and instead are taught that everything is fair now. That is the real problem and why white people so often dismiss modern racial inequality.

Ignorance is bliss in that you can ignore a cry for help because you and nobody around you understands why that cry is being made. Not a single person can force you to see something you don't want to, and not a single force can make a white person understand and feel racism in the modern day and age to a holistic degree. However, you can question why that cry is being made. You can hear their stories from not being able to hail a cab for hours to having their lives threatened. Your response can be about the politically correct term for a race, or you can make an impact by advocating on behalf of people with a lesser voice because of your privilege. For full disclosure to anybody that ever reads this, I am a white, straight male in America. I have privilege. My privilege is to write about this instead experience it. My privilege is worrying about my grade rather than my message. Racism is experiencing it.