Dec. 1, 2014

Ferguson is Illuminating Modern Day Racism, part ii 

Michael Erik Dyson, writer for the New York Times and author of “Where Do We Go After Ferguson?” claims that “our culture’s fearful dehumanizing of black men materialized once again when when Officer Wilson saw Michael Brown as a demonic force who had to be vanquished in a hail of bullets.” I am sure that statement put an unwashed image in the back of your head. Now there are a couple ways to look at this situation. The fact that young Brown was unarmed yet shot to death does raise a plethora of questions. Was Brown acting out and over reacting around the police officer? Was the Police Officer over reacting? Was this an act of racism? Many more questions surface I am sure however the question whether or not this was an act of racism or not is the most significant. 

Dyson also explains the dreadful fear a black individual experiences when seeing a police cruiser or officer because of the history of the history of racism all over the world. The evolution of racism can date thousands and thousands of years. We felt safe and content with the outcome of the Civil Rights Era, and stopped acknowledging the racism that still takes place all over the United States. 

Dyson used a real life experience he had when he was just 17 years old. Not even a legal adult yet he is assaulted by an officer after being pulled over with a buddy of his and his brother. Dyson said he was going to grab his registration out of his pocket and the next thing he knew he was bashed with the but of the officers piston in the back of the neck forcing him to fall to the ground. Then “promising, with a racial epithet, that he’d put a bullet through my head if I moved again” (Dyson). Long story short, as soon as the police officers ran the registration and found out the vehicle was not stolen they let them go “without a hint of an apology.” It sickens me to think there are still people out there with these disgusting mindsets. It could even the stranger in front of you at Starbucks while you wait for a coffee or someone you sit next to on an air plane. The moral of the story is that the reality of racism cannot be escaped, racism still surrounds our society as we know it and we must take a stand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/where-do-we-go-after-ferguson.html?_r=0