Michael Brown, an example of American racial prejudice
The question of whether or not the Ferguson case is racial or not is hard to answer. None of us know what was going through the mind of Darren Wilson, but to claim that race is not a huge factor in everything is a very naïve thought. The number of cases that involve a cop shooting a black man that get tried is far less than that of any cases involving a white person’s death. In the case of Darren Wilson, to claim that he felt that Michael Brown was hostile is a bold accusation, something many people have given much evidence to contradict. Although we cannot fully decipher whether or not this case in particular has a racial bias, it does spawn the question of whether or not America has progressed to the position that we all wish we could claim we have.
That police brutality has occurred due to protests is appalling. Free speech is something that we all have—or should have, by law—in this country, and we often see primarily white protests without any repercussions. But now that there is a prominently black protest that is incredibly important to hundreds of families, police claim to have no other ways of dealing with the unrest than with unadulterated violence. How can anyone believe that this is an okay thing to happen, and moreover, assume that the severity of the actions taken by police are not due to inherent racial prejudice? We as free Americans should hold police officers to a high standard and should, honestly, hold ourselves to just as high a standard and not call Darren Wilson any kind of hero for his actions. Whether racial or not, a murder is a murder, and an armed white police officer has killed an unarmed black teenager. There comes a point that we must look at this face-on and deal with the repercussions of this event.
This isn’t about one man killed in one town. It’s about how people of color deal with problems no white person has to, and how life in the United States is inherently more difficult for them, which is disgusting and contradictory to the supposed principles of our nation. The case of Ferguson has helped to shed a light on this problem, whether or not the event in and of itself is racial or not. Despite varied responses to the idea of the killing of Michael Brown being a racial crime or not, everyone should be able to appreciate this one fact: that there is a national problem of racial inequality that we must face and eradicate.
