Tonight it was announced that a grand jury did not find
enough evidence to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown. Eye-witness testimony was incredibly conflicting. It always is. Three different autopsies were performed
establishing, at the very least, how many shots it took to take this young
man’s life. It was six. Six shots fired, including two in the head. Regardless of this fact, it’s very likely that for many, how we
feel about this decision, will be divided down racial lines. And that is the problem.
What saddens me is not simply the grand jury’s decision, but
the inability of people to understand how this incident is representative of a
societal problem that is much bigger than the death of one young man. It’s the death of hundreds of men every
year. It’s the systematic imprisonment
of men of color. It’s the inequality
that exists in every aspect of quality of life for African Americans including,
education, income, health disparities, access to health care.
For me, this is about acknowledging how the color of your
skin is an indictment of your character in our country. This is about how being born black relegates
you to a life of inequality that you will work your entire life to overcome and
even then, you will still be targeted, judged, profiled. This is not about “playing the race
card.” This is about how an entire
segment of people in our country have historically been murdered, abused,
mistreated because of the color of their skin.
The numbers don’t lie.
1.
According to the Center for American Progress, people
of color make up 30% of the population but represent 60% of those imprisoned.
2.
A report by the Department of
Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three
times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white
motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four
times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with
the police.
3.
The Sentencing Project
reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive
mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more like
to be sentenced to prison.
4.
About 14 million Caucasians and 2.6
million African Americans report using an illicit drug. That’s 5 times as many Caucasians using drugs
as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug
offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites.
5.
The unemployment rate has been higher for black
college graduates than for all graduates for decades, but the gap widened since
2007, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy
Research.
Regardless of how you feel about what happened in Ferguson,
these numbers have to make you question the institutions in charge. You have to see that the deck is
stacked. There is no reason for the
people in power to change a system that benefits them so my hope is that people
will now step up. Speak out. Don’t allow injustices to occur in your
presence. Fight for change in your own
work place, your own community.
As
Melody Hobson, the president of Ariel Investment stated, be “color brave” and
maybe the next generation of our black children won’t spend their entire lives
trying to prove they are worthy of our love, respect and kindness.
