What it means to love America: Barack Obama in Selma, 50 years later

 

“Fellow marchers, so much has changed in fifty years. We’ve endured war, and fashioned peace. We’ve seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives, and take for granted convenience our parents might scarcely imagine. But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship, that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five, to decide they loved this country so much that they’d risk everything to realize its promise.

“That’s what it means to love America. That’s what it means to believe in America. That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.

“…That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others. We respect the past, but we don’t pine for it. We don’t fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing; we are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes. We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit.”

Black, white, young, old, Democratic or Republican – sometimes there is a speech given by a political figure that all Americans should watch.

This is one of them.

Crooked numbers: America’s biased justice system

Over 90 percent of crimes against black people are committed by black people. Sounds awful, right? “They’re all killing each other,” you’ll often hear from the mouths of white suburbanites.

It’s a nice diversion, but it’s totally irrelevant when discussing the fairness of America’s justice system.

What if I told you that nearly 85 percent of crimes against white people are committed by other white people? That’s a totally real statistic, just like the frequently discussed black-on-black crime percentage, but I haven’t heard many people talking about.

I have a crazy suggestion: crime is bad and often tragic, regardless of who does it – blacks, whites, yellows, purples.

The fact that crime against a person of particular race is often done by someone under the same racial umbrella isn’t some groundbreaking piece of news; it’s a result of geography and the human tendency to live in areas where most people look similar to you.

In other words, I’m white, most people I know are white, and the neighborhood I live in is predominately white. If someone is going to commit a crime against me, it’s highly likely that the person will be white. This is not some big New York Times scoop, and anyone throwing out these irrelevant numbers is simply avoiding a more important, complicated discussion.

We all know crime is bad, regardless of which skin color commits it, but the question is whether or not our justice system is fairly doling out punishment for those crimes – or not doling out a just punishment when a certain race commits them.

So when you hear somebody cut off a debate about inequality in our justice system by either bringing up similar crimes against white people or falling back on the black-on-black crime numbers, chances are they’re just not willing to have an honest discussion – or they simply have biases of their own.

The good news is you don’t have to simply take my word for it when I say that there are clear racial disparities built into our system; the numbers speak for themselves.

African-Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of white people, and one-third of black males will see prison time in their lives (Bureau of Justice Statistics).

Black and white people use drugs at roughly the same rate, yet black people are almost four times more likely to be arrested for it (Human Rights Watch).

African-Americans serve about as much time in prison for a drug offense as white people do for a violent offense (Sentencing Project).

Men of color are four times more likely to be shot and killed than somebody who looks like me (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and black teens are 21 times more likely to be shot by a police officer than a white person of the same age (ProPublica; FBI).

In total, black and brown people make up a combined 58 percent of our prisons, while those two racial categories make up only a quarter of the American population.

This is neither my opinion, nor is it an attempt to incite a race war. These are the facts. And anyone who cares about living in a country that strives to treat its citizens equally would recognize that we need to fix these things.

If we come together, we can do just that.

A few comments on Ferguson

I just want to make some quick comments about what’s been unfolding in Ferguson and across this country. This is mainly for all those people who keep saying, “If Michael Brown was white and Darren Wilson was black, we wouldn’t even be hearing about this right now.”

I agree with you; we wouldn’t be hearing about this right now if that were the case. But in saying that, you’re missing a more important point: Why wouldn’t we be hearing about this if the races were reversed? And the answer to that is simple: A. This rarely – I mean rarely – happens to white teenagers (black teens are 21 times more likely to be shot by the cops than a white person of the same age); B. In the rare case that it does happen, justice is almost always served; the shooter either goes to jail or faces a trial. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the racial make-up of our country’s prisons; it’s clear who has the advantage when it comes to dealing with the law, and that’s something that needs to be fixed.

So, please, stop whining about how white people don’t get the same attention when something similar happens. You might be right, but the reason why you’re right is simply because the system works well when white people are the victims, meaning it won’t attract much media attention.

Most of you reading this are probably white, and that’s fine. I happen to be white myself. And I certainly don’t condone violence of any sort. But we have to understand that racism still exists, particularly racism that’s built into our institutions. If you’re white and you kill someone, you just need mental help or it’s somebody else’s fault. If you’re black and kill someone, you’re an animal or a thug who needs to be put away for life.

We might not understand the extreme reaction we’re seeing in Ferguson, but we also don’t understand what it’s like to deal with the pain and frustration of having to live in a country whose justice system is constantly putting you at a disadvantage.

That’s all for now.

A letter to the mayor of #Ferguson, Mo.

To the mayor of Ferguson, Missouri, an American city:

I plan on keeping this short, but I wanted to make sure I chimed in on this issue, as so many Americans – black, white, Asian, etc. – have been doing over the past few days.

An unarmed, 18-year-old boy, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by one of your police officers, while he was walking to his grandmothers house this past Saturday. Witnesses say Brown had his arms raised in the air before he was shot multiple times and left dead in the street for hours.

The citizens of your city – American citizens protected by the U.S. Constitution – decided to speak out since their representatives, you included, have done nothing to address their concerns. In response, the police department (although it resembles the military of a country like Iran or North Korea) has decided its most important concern is to smother any type of dissent that might shed light on what happened.

The police in your city have used tear gas, rubber/wooden bullets, and other violent methods to prevent people from exercising their rights. Reporters have been arrested and shot at for trying to shed light on this national disgrace, and police officers have arrested people for trying to take videos of the disgusting spectacle – a right that we all have.

Just now, I heard you say that you couldn’t possibly second guess those police officers. The American people see what is happening and ask, “why not?”

The people of Ferguson need to be allowed to voice their concerns, the police department needs to answer for what it did to an unarmed boy, and you need to step down. Only someone of complete and utter incompetence could let their city turn into the likes of a middle eastern war zone.

What you have allowed to happen in Ferguson has pushed us further toward a dark past that no American wants to experience again, and you should be thoroughly ashamed.

With much disappointment,

Sean Colarossi
American Citizen

The mayor of Ferguson, MO, James Knowles, can be contacted at jknowles@fergusoncity.com or 314-521-1043.