Despite celebrating Thanksgiving, seeing loved ones and welcoming in the holiday season, my heart has been heavy and my conscience has been extremely burdened this past week.
Yes, this has everything to do with the Michael Brown decision.
Well, actually, this has nothing to do with the Michael Brown decision.
I feel the need to be explicitly clear on this. Michael Brown doesn’t matter. Darren Wilson doesn’t matter. A marginalized young black man and an over-militarized, discriminatory police officer, they are both players in this greater scheme that is our highly stratified society. This reinforced hierarchy that places rich white educated men at the pinnacle of all things holy while all others fall into place below them. Every moment spent writing, bickering and thinking about their individual stories is time that could be better served addressing the systemic inequality and large-scale injustices occurring in this country.
Before you dismiss my case, let me frame this for you by race alone:
- Black unemployment is consistently double that of white unemployment.
- While 85% of white Americans receive high school degrees, only 68% of black Americans receive them.
- When you take two statistics, sprinkle in some more structural inequality and add it all together- according to the 2010 census, the median income of white families is $62,545; the median income of black families is almost half of that at $38,409.
Now imagine being a young male with this family lineage for a moment:
Your great-grandfather was a slave. Your grandfather lacked human rights during Jim Crow. Your father was denied an education and incarcerated. You awake every morning without a male role model, with the knowledge that you have a 33% chance of ending up behind bars and, whether it be by gangs or police, the reality that if you are shot dead in the street you know that no justice will be done.
There will be no justice for the Michaels and Trayvons of America, #BlackLives will not #Matter and not much will change, until we collectively try to empower a group of Americans who have been so wronged for hundreds of years.
We do not live in a post-racial society. There is no place for apathy. Each us has a platform to speak out and address this injustice. I am using mine; I hope you will use yours.