The color of privilege, the color of doubt (FERGUSON ALERT)

When I was pulled over by police many years ago on a remote stretch of Illinois 171 at 1 a.m., I was the same age as Michael Brown.

Brown was the 18-year-old black teenager shot and killed Aug. 9 by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking weeks of street protests against Ferguson police.

It was on another August night when my 21-year-old brother and I spent time at the Bluefront Lounge near Willow Springs, listening to our favorite country-and-western band.

Later, I drove us home in my brother’s 1962 Chevrolet Impala with the convertible top down, while he sang along with the radio in the passenger seat. When a squad car’s flashing lights splashed in my rear view, I pulled off the road adjacent to a forest preserve.

A second police car pulled in front and a third alongside, as six officers sprang out, waving flashlights and ordering us out of the car.

It was a novel experience to me, verging on adventure. I had not been speeding, was not impaired and figured that they thought we were someone else and shortly would realize their mistake.

My brother, on the other hand, was perturbed. He was in law school, and I could see the wheels turning. The tone of voice of one of the officers was strident.

My brother responded by citing a law. When the officer impatiently pushed him against the car, my brother called all of them a name — three words obscenely questioning their intelligence and sexual proclivities.

We were on a dark and lonely road, at the mercy of police with guns who had just been insulted. But the nearest officer rolled his eyes, shook his head and patted us down, none too gently. “Boys will be boys,” seemed to be their default reaction.

It turns out they stopped us because it was very late, and I seemed to be driving “too slow.” No ticket was issued. No arrests were made. We never felt threatened, even after my brother’s incendiary remark, because we were good kids and trusted that the police would realize it.

Last month, police stopped Michael Brown for jaywalking. While all the facts are not yet in, Brown also apparently was perturbed. There was a possible exchange of remarks. A scuffle.

Then the officer shot and killed Brown because, he said, Brown hit him in the face and tried to grab his gun. But eyewitnesses counter that the officer shot him after Brown surrendered and raised his hands in the air.

Soon after, black residents of Ferguson, elsewhere in the St. Louis area and from all around the country began protests. Not just because they perceived that a crime had been committed by officer Wilson, but because, as many told reporters, they also have been profiled, abused and victimized by police.

And that the color of their skin disqualified them from the “boys will be boys” presumption and privilege.

Because black males commit violent crime at a higher rate than whites, according to a study by the Justice Department, police target law-abiding citizens if they happen to be black.

This, of course, is as unjust as it would be to profile innocent white males, based on the fact that mass killers such as Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook School) and James Holmes (Colorado movie theater) usually have been male, young and white.

The vast majority of young black males are earnest, ethical and nonviolent human beings. I wish it were not necessary to articulate this reality — like having to point out that birds have wings.

But even though blacks in America have made tremendous political and economic gains since the Civil Rights movement began, the fears and misconceptions of too many whites are little changed from the 1960s. White acquaintances and relatives still react with dubiousness or surprise when I recount positive interactions with black students in my 20 years as a Chicago Public Schools teacher.

And it will likely take many years, perhaps another generation or two, before that type of prejudgment and racial mistrust changes through education, integration and attrition. Until that happens, white police officers will continue, illegally, to treat black men differently from whites.

Meanwhile, a constitutionally viable remedy is needed to stop the injustice. Federal and state grants for law enforcement can be tied to initiatives that diversify local police departments such as Ferguson’s, which has 50 white officers and three black in a town whose population is nearly 70 percent black.

The more equally representative a police force is of its populace, the less likely that justice will be denied on the basis of color.

If the tragic death of Michael Brown leads to such change, there can be a positive outcome from the events in Ferguson after all.

David McGrath, a former resident of Evergreen Park and Oak Forest, is an emeritus professor of English at the College of DuPage. mcgrathd@dupage.edu

Notice that none of the professor’s assumptions are sourced. He is presenting them as if it were established fact.

“Last month, police stopped Michael Brown for jaywalking.”

That is by no means certain as to why the initial contact took place. There were also reports that the officers had been given a description that a strong-arm robbery had just taken place and the “unarmed teen” fit the description.

“While all the facts are not yet in, Brown also apparently was perturbed. There was a possible exchange of remarks. A scuffle.”

One fact that is in is the video showing MB grabbing a much-smaller man’s throat for daring to follow him after he robbed him. It was clear that the “unarmed teen” was used to doing and taking whatever he wanted and felt it necessary to put his victim in his place.

“Then the officer shot and killed Brown because, he said, Brown hit him in the face and tried to grab his gun. But eyewitnesses counter that the officer shot him after Brown surrendered and raised his hands in the air.”

The media isn’t showing these so-called “witnesses” giving their accounts personally preferring instead to their legal spokesmen to spoon-feed us what they said instead. If you see them actually talking, you will know why. Anyone who has seen an episode of COPStv has seen this sort of witness give their side of the story.

There was another video in which a black witness can be heard saying that MB turned around and charged at the officer. The autopsy results show that he was hit in the front and at the top of his head, consistent with the officer’s account.

“Soon after, black residents of Ferguson, elsewhere in the St. Louis area and from all around the country began protests. Not just because they perceived that a crime had been committed by officer Wilson, but because, as many told reporters, they also have been profiled, abused and victimized by police.”

Profiling under these circumstances is more than justified. Who is over-represented when it comes to committing violent crime in this country?

“And that the color of their skin disqualified them from the “boys will be boys” presumption and privilege.”

Actually the color of the skin of the violent sociopath and that of the officer who was forced to shoot him, disqualified the officer from being judged on the evidence, with race being the deciding factor instead.

Hence we have the spectacle of a black preacher calling for a lynching based on race rather than evidence.

The more evidence that comes out showing that the shooting was justified, the more inflamed the mob becomes. They then take out their outrage on old ladies, pregnant women — anyone who is the wrong color in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This professor is giving his blessing to this sort of savagery and the abandonment of Rule of Law in favor of justice being determined by who the person is, not what they did.

I was up at Lennox Square Mall and I saw a prostitute! I never saw her face, but I’m positive that’s what she was. I have always wondered, “how do people know for SURE that’s a prostitute??” But when I saw this one, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind.
A black woman, LOTS of hair cascading down her back, not done, just wild. Like she’d just gotten out of bed. And the tightest, shortest dress that I have ever seen in my life. and heels. And she wasn’t walking with purpose, just strolling along Lenox Rd. (I think that’s the name of it)
Duh, I was trying to look at her and not stare at the same time. LOL I’d never seen anyone that looked quite like that before.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.