To paraphrase The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, President Obama is damned every which way when talking about race in America, and he also succinctly commented that 'it's the lot of the first African-American President of The United States' aka the 'least aggrieved black man in America.'
With that in mind, when the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson (now a household name) by a grand jury came to pass, all that's left for the president to essentially say is that we have to follow the rule of law. Some may not like that but when someone like Rich Lowry of the National Review says that the president's comments were pretty much right on you can see the fine line Mr. Obama has to walk though rightfully so, the expectations for him are higher when it comes to discussing race. Meanwhile, the citizens of Ferguson, MO rage in frustration and unwantedly serve as the epicenter for other protests and demonstrations around the country.
Unfortunately it seems as if we have to reprogram our brains for a new reality. If you connect some of the statements presented on today's program everything comes into focus. Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP first stated what we all know which is that discussing race is an uncomfortable conversation, difficult to maintain and thus is not had frequently enough. That conversation was cut in Ferguson by the prosecutor and grand jury of St. Louis County in not going forward with an indictment and subsequent trial. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) explained why he wanted to see an indictment because he believes that transparency of a trial is essential. That's true but what is also true is that the press would blow up the trial in the media and if a not guilty verdict came down, then it could potential be even worse. Despite this, the conversation needs to continue.
The New York Times columnist David Brooks said that it was the white community's responsibility to go the 'extra mile' when it comes to race relations. So does that mean he agrees with Gov. Patrick that there should have been indictment handed down by the 'white controlled' judicial institutions? In terms of Ferguson, what else could it suggest? Carry that a step further with The "Meet The Press" Colin Powell clip in which he says that there is a 'dark vein of intolerance inside the [Republican] party.
You tie it all together and it presents quite a darker image of America than we'd like to imagine and don't believe in the sinister nature that rubs off. But no one has a good answer as to why as a society what can not explain ourselves when some one like Pharrell Williams says in Ebony we're not talking about the causes of why Michael Brown thought it OK to act as he did in the first place.
As Mr. Brooks spoke, one of his comments was that racial issues are very much intertwined with social ones, which is true but doesn't fully account for or comprehend the fact the one is a cause and the other a result. It's why most African-Americans don't believe that race relations are any better than they were five years ago. All this leads to Harvard professor Charles Ogletree's conclusion that incidents like Ferguson are going to continue and we'll have more Michael Browns.
That's the reality that we having real trouble reprogramming our brains to accept because it's so unacceptable.
We have to stem the tide, keep the conversation going, and as Ms. Ifill mentioned manage our own biases.
Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Rich Lowry, The National Review.
(Great panel - all press.)
...And speaking of managing our own biases, Senator-elect Tom Cotton (R-AR) spoke about immigration legislation only in terms of southern border security and security inside the country. If this sole thrust of his understanding of immigration reform there's little reason to think anything will get done because it perpetuates an undue prejudice of Hispanics in American and shows a lack of understanding the full scope of undocumented immigration into the United States, but let's get to work on that border fence anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment