Posted on 09/14/2014 10:38:53 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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.
“Hands on the hood!” he said.
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.
Did I mention that we were white?
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
“vast majority” are earnest, ethical and nonviolent human beings??? That’s exactly the problem. A vast majority of black males are NOT any of those things. Especially ethical and nonviolent.
I wish the good professor would provide some evidence for this opinion. Personally, I doubt this number is a majority at all, much less a "vast majority."
The comment is a lot like the continued claim that Islam is an ROP, continued assertion as if reality will bow if your perceptions insist.
See my tagline.
I drove through an all black neighborhood the other day, and I saw lots of bars on windows and doors.
They must be there to keep the white policemen out.
White Privilege is old stuff.
Political Correctness and Affirmative Action have replaced White Privilege with Black Privilege, Brown Privilege, Homo Privilege, Gender Privilege and Muslim Privilege.
One of the black neighborhoods where I live is commonly referred to as Grab all, even by the black people who live there. (They see it, they grab it, they grab it all, grab all.) It is not a recent name for the area either, goes back a long time.
I guess this professor missed the white 20 year old in Salt lake City Utah who was unarmed and shot by a black cop.
Not a whole lot of “privilege” there
Like that tagline. IMO, one surefire way to change a libs perception, challenge them to take a leisurely midnight stroll along any MLK Blvd. I bet the reaction would be priceless.
BFL
>>>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.<<<
So he’s saying that black people have made enormous gains in the past 50 years, while white people are still stuck in their old bigoted attitudes.
Presented without proof, too, other than an anecdote from his friends and family.
There was a survey published in a British newspaper last year that concluded the United States was one of the most racially tolerant places on the planet. Yes, it contradicts his anecdote.
My anecdote is the opposite of his. Many of the white peopled I know are among the most tolerant, least bigoted people I know. They go out of their way to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. It has been literally decades since I’ve heard a white people freely express racial antagonism to me, or use a racial slur around me. Now, that’s an anecdote, too, but a lot different from the professors.
My conclusion after reading this is that the professor thinks he can determine attitude, character, and politics from skin color alone - and whites are found wanting. A pithy definition of someone who thinks they can determine those things from skin color is “racist pig.”
I'll bet the gentle giant was a known entity..
and Mr. Professor, the cop suffered injuries, a shot was fired inside or near his car, and they are also people saying that the giant was in attack mode...least that's what I read....
why is it that some people always seem to be in suspicious areas doing suspicious things....and then they cry if something happens....
STOP ASKING FOR IT!
PC largely consists of not noticing and not remembering reality.
IOW, it’s pretty much Newspeak.
Hey professor - Take an evening stroll down Martin Luther King Boulevard in any fair sized city and see how your white guilt fantasies work out for you.
I would love to have the good professor face down a good old fashioned mob attack knockdown by local “teenagers”...
Brown also apparently had a juvie record.
Few black and white questions and answers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3203825/posts?page=43#43
we can bet that Mr. Professor lives in a white area, maybe gated, with transportation to pick him up and to his destinations, and if he has kids, which is doubtful seeing the lack of testosterone, but if he did have kids, I would bet they would be in private school.
Nope. This misstates the facts, and anything further is fruit of the poisonous tree.
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