Road to hell

[muckefuck]

I think the most depressing thing about the events in Ferguson is the complete predictability of the response, from the police rolling up to peaceful demonstrations more heavily armoured than battalions in Iraq to the focus on everything else but the issue at hand. I am seeing a lot of informed and angry dissent from the dominant narrative this time around, but I suspect that's more a product of the composition of my flist and the fact that I rely increasingly on alternative news sources. Whenever I check in with the mainstream media, it's the same sterile privileging of the "official" version.

If there was any question about what's being repeated outside of my echo chambers, it was settled yesterday by an exchange with my sister where she reveals herself completely ignorant of the existence of racism. You know what I mean: She equates it with bigotry and, while she recognises that injustice exists, she doesn't view it as systematic or institutionalised. Fortunately, Buzzfeed put together a clear and simple graphic of the racially-biased policing that goes on in Ferguson which seems to have gotten her attention. She's not dumb or indifferent to abuse, she's just--in her own words--"naïve".

Of course, that only depresses me more. Whereas my high school had more Buddhists than Black people (it was run by a Catholic religious order, mind), hers was reasonably diverse. She bought her house in a suburb with a 50% White population (the one we grew up in was 80-90% White) and insists on sending her children to the local public schools, in part so that they'll be exposed to a broader selection of humanity than we were at that age. In spite of that, she doesn't actually seem to have any Black friends--or at least none who would feel comfortable discussing the deep disparities in their experiences. She's passionate about fighting injustice--when several firefighters got a raw deal from the city council last year, she was rallying people to their cause--but she can't fight what she hasn't learned to see.

Comments

[gopower.livejournal.com]

Simple graphics, but hardly clear.

I'm guessing that Ferguson is pretty segregated (out on a limb, I know). Any racial discrepancy in traffic stops, arrests, et al could be explained if drug-dealing corners were predominately (or exclusively) in black neighborhoods. Police go where the crime is, and more blacks get caught up in the net. That would also explain why a higher percentage of whites who do get stopped have contraband -- that's the principal reason they go to those areas.

Geography may also play a role. If the smaller (by population) white neighborhoods are located on the outskirts of the city, away from downtown, then white residents are mostly driving outside Ferguson, not through it. If you weighted traffic stops by miles driven in the jurisdiction, the racial discrepancy might disappear.

There are probably racial factors at work, but not necessarily by the police.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

There is a saying that goes something like; "There are two Americas. One for Blacks and one for Whites." Those of us trying to understand and help the Black community as support, if nothing else, firmly believe this saying.

I have friends who are stopped by the police purely because their skin is not white. Our prison numbers and a report from the U.S. Justice Dept. clearly shows that we are warehousing Blacks and Latinos based on flimsy "evidence" and/or non-violent drug possession.

What's going on right now is just bringing our self-created police state out in the open, and the inherent racism of American police. Trying to silence reporters is another typical behavior of Fascists, and it's clear that Fascism is running rampant through our entire "justice" system.

BTW - I hope you are well and happy, (overall.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Between this and Robin Williams' suicide, it's been a bit of a rough week, but my home life is peachy. Thanks for asking.

Re: she can't fight what she hasn't learned to see.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

No, I give her a lot of credit for that. She's always been more willing to admit she's wrong about something and change her mind than her brothers (who, as a result of being praised for our smarts, have always been strongly concerned with image management). I'm looking forward to having a conversation with her about this sometime.

As a matter of principle, I don't click on any links from the HuffPo.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

In spite of that, she doesn't actually seem to have any Black friends--or at least none who would feel comfortable discussing the deep disparities in their experiences.

Wow, do you? I would rather open my own wrists than initiate a discussion of race relations with one of my black neighbors, if only because they're not under any obligation to educate me when there are plenty of others who are willing to write about their experiences and publish it where anyone can read about it.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

1. You're decidedly less outgoing than my sister.
2. You don't have kids. IME, mothers often end up having conversations about topics you or I would never consider initiating.

That said, I can think of only a couple of Black friends with whom I'd be reasonably comfortable initiating such a conversation. I'd like to think that more than that would be comfortable initiating such a conversation with me.

I'm actually more inclined to initiate discussions of race relations with POCs than with White people. At least I know that most POCs and I will be starting from the same basic assumptions, whereas other White people generally range in their attitudes from some degree of cluelessness to outright denial.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but don't POC have plenty of reason to suspect a white person's motives in quizzing them about this stuff? So often it's to get validation, or reassurance, or out of being too lazy to look stuff up (not to mention treating people as reps of their race), and maybe you can't be honest anyway because you can't afford to antagonize anyone at work, etc. It's just so fraught, I think. I guess now that I think about it, a couple of people have told me stories about police harassment or related issues, but they brought it up, not me, and more in the sense of just telling a personal story than in trying to have a grand discussion about racism.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone ever really sets out to have a grand discussion of racism. Often the only way these discussions ever get started--because everyone is so inhibited by all the factors you mention--is for someone to say something so stunningly clueless that their friend(s) just can't pass over it in silence. I know that's how I've gotten my ass educated more than once (often in this very journal).

[bunj.livejournal.com]

In her defense, I know of at least one black friend of her's. I was visiting during one of her open game days and a couple was visiting with their son. One of the members of the couple was white, but the other was black. Their son is even named after a famous black poet. He spent most of the day playing with our nephews.

Whether our sister feels comfortable discussing race relations with them may be a different matter.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to attack her in any way, I'm just hangwringing about the enormity of the problem. Face it, a lot of people from our background don't even care about providing an integrated environment for their kids. (Quite the opposite, generally.) She does, and yet she's still missing the boat.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

If I may hazard a potentially lighter note, when I first heard of the premise of China Miéville's book The City & The City, I had a hard time wrapping my head around it: two cities that occupy the same space but consciously ignore one another. Then I realized there was a perfect real-life analogy out there: black St. Louis and white St. Louis.

Sure, it's easier to segregate when you have physical separation, but not necessary. As long as you keep your interactions on the most basic level you need to, two societies can rumble along side-by-side without really knowing or understanding one another. It's more obvious in cities with a very mixed population, but I've never seen a fully integrated city, at least not in this country.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant.

I think I first realised how much this was the case when some newsmagazine (Newsweek?) ran a story on "hometowns" and a Black St Louisan wrote about a conversation she had with a White colleague who found it hard to believe they really shared a hometown when she reeled off a list of local attractions (Ted Drewes, Bevo Mill, etc.) and the author told her she'd never visited any of them. Then, of course, she gave a list of her hangouts and I'd never even heard of any of them, let alone visited them. (Dad's probably been to a few, however.)