The Burden of Skin Color & Bias

I've often thought about the lottery of life and how it affects billions of people, in the past, now and in the future. Poverty, economic status, war, peace, starvation, health, illness, life and death. Trying to figure it out is pretty useless, but understanding that it is out there is a critical part of knowing how and why people sometimes act the way they do, or in knowing how to respond as well.

I wish I could say it were different, but the fact is, most white people just don't get the issues revolving around Ferguson, Missouri. Mainly because we just don't understand or experience the kind of injustice that black communities live with every day. The killing and imprisonment of young black men is a statistical fact. Eventually information and statistics like this have a devastating effect on people of color. As justice is pursued when these things occur, black communities see responses from a system that have to make them believe everything is rigged.

If anything, Ferguson should help some of us try to unravel the problems of the burden of skin color and bias in America. To be sure, I'm writing this as a white man who came up through experiences in the civil rights movement of the 60's and the Vietnam era anti-war movement.

Sadly, Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown have similarities to that time period. The similarities are in the burden and the bias. But there are many differences. Fifty years later, some people were niave enough to think that change had been accomplished. Some things have changed, but the reality of being young and black remains. The reality of being black in and of itself remains.

The language that we've heard in the past week is the language of bias and it helps in understanding how deep it is settled within the white culture of America. We've heard words like "it", "bulking up", "Hulk Hogan", "demon" when referencing Michael Brown. The images of wild, young, black men menacing the white culture as we know it, are there. There are other words and images of black men & women, code words if you will. They conjure up fears or conquests and power struggles. They are bad and yet many in the white community see nothing wrong with them.

You can hear it in conversations whites are having among themselves. "What are they doing burning up their own neighborhoods, their own businesses?" "Riots never solve anything." And so it goes. No understanding of hopelessness or of the odds that are pitted against someone growing up black in America. No understanding of mistreatment by traditional authority figures or bosses or banks or people in the street. Seemingly no real understanding that the criminal justice system is totally biased relative to blacks in particular but also bad for all of us.

What's happening is much bigger than Ferguson though. What's happening is about economics and low wage workers.Young people and older people believe the system is rigged and unfair. More and more people believe justice is hard to come by. This is about the environment, criminal justice, exploitation, fear and a world that seems more and more broken. We are watching a revolution with young leaders who are rightfully angry and frustrated.

Everyday there are new examples of over zealous policing and bad policy relative to economics and fairness. Watch the video of Tamir Rice, the 12 tear old Cleveland youth, shot by police in a few seconds for wielding a toy weapon. And remember Trayvon Martin. I have faith in new leaders who are trying to let people know how serious these issues are for all of us. We need to listen and act. Help eliminate the burden of skin color and bias in any way you can.