Ferguson and the larger problems with race in the US

Despite today’s good news, I’m still not happy with the situation in Ferguson, nor the overall situation facing African-Americans and other minorities in the United States.  I’m going to copy my status update on Facebook:

I thought having a good nights sleep would refresh me. I thought I’d wake up energized and rebooted, so to speak. That hasn’t happened. I’m still feeling the fear and anger I felt last night. This country is scaring me. Mike Brown was killed for doing nothing. He was shot multiple times, despite having no weapon and posing no threat. The levels of police brutality in this country, especially as directed towards women and men of color are horrifying. People see examples in the media, but they see them as isolated incidents, rather than an ongoing problem. Racism is not gone in the US. The militarization of the police in Ferguson in response to almost overwhelmingly peaceful protests is scary. Living in Florida-the state that was home to Trayvon Martin and that scuzzbucket George Zimmerman, I’m acutely aware that there are people-citizens, law enforcement officials, politicians, and more-that do not value the life of people of color. Add to that the fact that I’m gay. And I’m an atheist (yeah, this is the official coming out of the closet on FB about that), and that’s a virtual trifecta of goodness there. Any number of people would love for me to be dead for any of those three things. The media barely covers the tragedy in Ferguson, overwhelming us with other images and stories. When the media does cover such horrible events, they do it without connecting the dots to all the other horrible occurrences in the country, which leads people to thinking it’s not connected. It leads people to see things in isolation, rather than a larger pattern of systemic discrimination and oppression of a minority group. It’s horrible feeling like your concerns don’t matter to the public. It’s horrible to think that people want you dead for nothing more than the color of your skin, who you find yourself attracted to, or the fact that you see no evidence for the existence of any deity and choose not to believe in fairy tales. But that’s the country we live in. I’m at a loss what to do, and that both scares and angers me. It also angers me that more people aren’t angry. It angers me that media outlets let ongoing civil rights violations go unnoticed…unreported. And our politicians…I don’t even want to talk about the disappointment that is our politicians. Yeah, the GOP and libertarians are skidmarks on the underwear of humanity, but the Democrats are only marginally better. I despair sometimes. And don’t anyone worry-this isn’t the type of despair where I’m contemplating something foolish like suicide. It’s a realization of how horrible this country is, and a wish for it to be better. A wish for the people to be better. There are still many things I want to do in life. I just wish I had the same opportunities to do them, and was accorded the same respect that white, heterosexual, theistic people have. Don’t fool yourself for one second-this country does not have a level playing field for all the players.

 

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Ferguson and the larger problems with race in the US
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