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We Are Not Darren Wilson: But the view from Africa kind of makes it look like we are
Pacific Standard - The Science of Society ^ | December 12, 2014 | M. Sophia Newman

Posted on 12/13/2014 11:52:09 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

This post was produced in partnership with Beacon Reader as part of a crowd-funded reporting project, “After Ebola Comes Hunger.” Read more about our support for this project, and pledge your support here.

Two months ago, it felt like America had a serious identity conflation problem. Amid the Ebola hysteria, people confused Ebola-afflicted Africans with any other African. A Nigerian girl was barred from school out of fear of Ebola contagion; a stadium crowd taunted a juvenile soccer player from Africa by braying “Ebola, Ebola!” at him. Meanwhile, the country faced its own dark scourge—and here, the conflation of identity was intentional. Cops assigned to the Ferguson protests wore bracelets that said “I am Darren Wilson,” the name of the cop who killed Michael Brown.

By mid-October, Ebola cases faded in America and police stations banned the bracelets. After the Eric Garner killing failed to lead to an indictment, the protesters’ message—that cops’ lack of individual accountability was an important part of why killings occur—gained support from even right-wing TV hosts and a noted war criminal.

Throughout this ordeal, Americans have been quick to identify how they must look to outsiders. An article on what the coverage of the police violence protests would look like if the country weren’t our own nearly went viral; an Ebola bit by a South African comedian on the Daily Show did. As I departed for Africa, I wondered if Ferguson was our Ebola—a moment when people far away saw every American as afflicted with violence, in rather the same way we misidentified all Africans with Ebola infection for a time. So I asked.

I sought a range of opinions from contacts I made while living in Ghana and teaching an international graduate school class in Bangladesh, which included students from five African nations. This was not a scientific survey, and these responses aren’t necessarily representative of any particular country or place in Africa. But they certainly deliver a different perspective on how our country is perceived from the outside.

Of the five people I interviewed, everyone had heard of Michael Brown and the Ferguson protests, and most mentioned Eric Garner, too. The basic story of American police violence has spread into media outlets worldwide.

The collective mood is glum. “It’s absurd that [the violence] has been occurring consistently over the years,” says Michael Jonga, a public health professional from Uganda. “I think Martin Luther King’s dream should have been fulfilled by now,” adds Patrick MacAidoo, a former co-worker of mine from Ghana, who calls the situation “very sad.” Others, like Edgar Kagumba from Uganda, call it “very disturbing.”

Overall, their impression of the violence is similar to the viewpoint of many Americans. “I am not impressed with the way the state administrators handled the whole situation. They seem to protect their own,” Jonga says. Hussein Dossajee, a doctor from Kenya, agrees. “The truth will probably never be told until much later…. [But] why six shots were fired is something that needs to be explained.”

My respondents seemed to understand the chronic nature of the violence. “This is already a pretty racially charged society and it is bound to flare up,” Dossajee says, in a comment that sounds like this satire but is entirely sincere. Jonga admits to holding a dim view of America in general: “My opinion has always been that American people have lots of double standards and sometimes act selfishly to serve their interests.”

Kagumba is openly fearful. “I think America is increasingly becoming unsafe for blacks, and hope that society doesn’t degenerate into an apartheid South Africa of sorts!”

Ghanaians are more willing to give the benefit of the doubt—perhaps a reflection of their own uncommonly peaceful national history. MacAidoo thinks that, police bracelets notwithstanding, we are mostly not Darren Wilson. “I do not believe this is a clear case of a general racism…. This has to do with wrong cultural orientation against the black people by some selected white policemen in the police department.”

I ask Emmanuel Darkwa, a public health professional from Accra, Ghana, if the news of white policemen killing black men has damaged his opinion of white people in general. He says, “[At] first yes. But … I think through the issues before making any conclusions.” He adds that people he knows don’t view all Americans as alike: “The feeling is that some states are very fond of racial discrimination and abuse whiles others are perceived to be a nice place to go to. That’s what people back home think of.”

Jonga, for all his negative feelings about America generally, has a surprisingly progressive take on solving police violence in America. “The cops who kill people are not monsters, but people who are struggling with too much, and they need … a holistic psychiatric intervention,” he says, sounding like America’s violence interrupters. And he adds that police owe their victims the same consideration: “I think the police should protect the citizens even when they are acting in unreasonable manners … since the victims would be persons who need psychiatric help and not bullets to their demise.”

The irony of the situation was not lost upon my Ugandan and Ghanaian friends. “I feel very disappointed in the judicial and executive systems of America. I thought this first world country knew better and must show the way,” MacAidoo says.

“America is pre-occupied with setting standards for China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Africa; for the world,” Kagumba adds. “Standards that are too high to attain, even for itself…. When America fails to practice what it preaches, it loses its moral authority. It loses its relevance on the global stage.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: africa; blacks; darrenwilson; ebola; ericgarner; ferguson; lawenforcement; selfloathing
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How many of the Africans asked were told that Saint Brown of Swisher attacked Officer Wilson and tried to take his pistol before he was shot.

And this woman saved me from taking a drink but will probably be punished by her publisher. I thought it was obligatory to say “killed the unarmed black TEENAGER”. She said “the cop who killed Michael Brown. “


21 posted on 12/13/2014 6:19:59 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: re_nortex

She definitely has “The Look” ! /s;)


22 posted on 12/13/2014 9:36:25 PM PST by Frank_2001
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To: 2ndreconmarine; Fitzcarraldo; Covenantor; Mother Abigail; EBH; Dog Gone; ...
Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

23 posted on 12/16/2014 8:58:34 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

Thanks for the ping!


24 posted on 12/16/2014 7:55:12 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey!

Halloween is in October. This is just January 3rd!

Then again, it could have been a pic of Moochelle 0bama...

Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.




25 posted on 01/02/2015 10:28:01 PM PST by rdb3 (Meh! A hole-in-one is just an eagle. Sink an albatross!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

She is what folks around here commonly refer to as ‘rode hard and put up wet a few too many times’...


26 posted on 01/02/2015 10:46:26 PM PST by snuffy smiff (Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Thanks for posting.

The author forgot to mention that a hundred million Africans would move to the USA tomorrow if they had a few months of savings and legal documents.

I doubt if a hundred thousand Black Americans would voluntarily and permanently move to Africa.


27 posted on 01/02/2015 11:38:04 PM PST by zeestephen
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The weird thing is that she chose that picture to accompany her published work. She likes it. She thinks she looks great.

(Those droopy eyes are genetic and only surgery can help.)


28 posted on 01/03/2015 4:11:42 AM PST by Tax-chick (Start the new year right. Donate to Free Republic and adopt a kitten!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Way back in 1980 in eastern Uganda and old woman came up to me and asked, “Please, when are the British coming back?” (I am of the ‘lighter persuasion’, i.e. ‘white’, so she assumed that I was British)

Her knowledge of British rule came from personal experience, not from a college course taught a professional hippie leftist or from articles written by a starry eyed journalist who “want to make a difference” and who had once been taught by said professional hippie leftist professors.

In Mali in the 90’s a villager told me “you know what this country needs... Re-colonization!”

Neither British not French colonial rule were perfect, but “Perfect is the enemy of good”. Sir Robert Watson-Watt, who developed early warning radar in Britain to counter the rapid growth of the Luftwaffe, propounded a “cult of the imperfect”, which he stated as “Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good


29 posted on 01/03/2015 5:01:18 AM PST by BwanaNdege
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