Hello, friends!
In the past few days, my news feeds have been commandeered by 2 stories: people dumping buckets of water on their heads and the situation in Feguson. While ALS research is a worthy cause, I have spent much more time thinking about Ferguson. St. Louis used to be my home. Meg lived not too far from Ferguson when we were dating and our first apartment wasn't too far from the area either. This one strikes close to home.
By now, you have probably read the same news stories and seen the same images that I have. If you are like me, my guess is that you have a diverse set of friends and those friends are posting topics that have very different takes on the situation at hand. At the risk of adding to the noise, here is the take of an Asian American man who grew up in California but still consideres himself a St. Louisan.
What has been the most troubling for me as I have read the articles and followed the different posts is that it seems like there is a culture war happening right now such that there really isn't a conversation happening. I can only speak from my own experiences as a minority so here is how I am seeing it: Most whites and/or conservatives are missing the cultural significance of what has happened here. Note that I am NOT saying "all" because that isn't the case. However, I don't think that "most" is an unfair thing to say.
A trend I have noticed is that many of my white and/or conservative friends have been talking about the "facts of the case." Their posts usually center around what new information has come to light in the case, trying to answer the question, "Was the officer justified in his shooting of Mike Brown?" Many believe that this pursuit of "truth" is the determining factor in whether or not the protests are justified. From my understanding, the logic goes, "If Brown was the instigator, the cop was justified, thus meaning the community has no right to be angry."
Unfortunately, this misses the point completely. I've been wracking my brain the past few days trying to figure out why this pursuit of "truth" is so unnerving to me and here is the best answer that I have. Western culture is so individualistic that it is having trouble seeing the community implications of what happened.
If Black culture is anything like Asian culture, and I have reason to believe that there are many similaritites, the individual actions of Mike Brown are seondary to the community implications. It's more than, "A guy got shot." It's, "we lost one of our own... again."
Let's add to that. It's, "We lost one of our own again and the people who are supposed to protect and serve us are being suspiciously slow, like they are trying to cover up something. We lost one of our own again and no one is giving us any answers. We lost one of our own again and it took 4 hours before his body was treated with enough dignity to be picked up off the street. We lost one of our own and people are weighing in across the country on whether or not he deserved to die like they have the moral standing to make such a judgment. We lost one of our own and it was at the hands of a group that systematically has oppresssed and looked down on us for 400 years."
This is not a question of whether or not Mike Brown deserved to die but it seems like that is the question that many of my white and/or conservative friends are posing. Statements like, "of course it is a tragedy BUT..." do not help.
Western (read: White) culture has an individualistic tone that has led to some of the world's greatest inventions and developed some of the world's greatest leaders. But it also often misses the community implications of individual events. Throw in hundreds of years of oppression and a less than compassionate attitude towards those who have just lost a friend, son, neighbor, and brother, and I don't think it is out of the ordinary to be a little ticked.
My question is what to do about it now. I'm too far away ot join the protests in Ferguson. I'm too angry to keep reading Facebook posts and commenting. All I can do is pray for peace and be there for my friends who are hurting.
Friends who are hurting: I won't pretend and say that I have any idea what you are going through because I have no idea. What I can say is that I love each of you dearly and I will help you process and mourn in any way that I can. You know how to reach me.
Have an excellent day.
~Adam
