I cant stop reading articles about #ferguson. Maybe its how close it is to where I went to college. Maybe its how it reminds me of the article I read about the man choked to death by the NYPD last month. Or maybe because it reminds me of the photos I saw of the woman dragged out of her apartment topless by a team of NYPD officers. Maybe Im still thinking about Trayvon Martin and an article titled America is not for black people. Maybe its my post from earlier this week about the if they gunned me down hashtag project that asks which photo the media would use of someone shot to death. Its not usual for me to get compulsive about reading news updates. I try to stay informed without getting sucked into the vortex of live, breaking news, because not every story benefits from speed. Thoroughness and thoughtfulness of response are often better tools for crafting the news than speed. I also avoid the 24 hour news slushie because I think spending more time consuming information than you spend doing something about the situation youre being informed about is a trap. But, whats happening in Ferguson, MO seems to be part of a pattern that feels dangerous to ignore. This feels like something thats going to be a cultural touchstone—a series of events that we start conversations around and that we look back on in a decade wide pride or shame or some complicated mix of both. Yes, I know that a lot of the examples I mentioned above are anecdotal evidence. I know you could argue that theyre isolated incidents. Or that they dont matter in the big picture because violence (and human rights injustices) have declined over the course of history—as Steven Pinker asserts in The Better Angels of Our Nature, even if the constant spin of the 24 hour news cycle and the interconnectedness of modern technology makes it feel otherwise. Whats happening in Ferguson is just one of far too many examples of violence and injustice. All across the world there are similarly terrible events taking place. No one person can pay attention to them all, but we can pay attention to some of them. I decided to pay attention to this one. Heres what I think the pattern shows, and why I believe whats happening is too dangerous to ignore: There are forces of prejudice, privilege, and inertia layered so deep into our current human societies that its difficult to even notice them and the way that they work together as a system unless someone standing in different shoes points it out to you. Its far too complex to be simply defined, but its pervasive and it actively makes life more difficult for a great many people—and as a whole, it makes life worse for all of us. The solution is not going to be easy or quick—but if I had to sum up my suggestions as concisely as possible Id say this: more listening, less retribution, more sharing of resources, less fighting for control, and all in all more loving your neighbor. Take those platitudes for what theyre worth: not a damn lot unless we live by them.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:07:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015