Illustration by Alex Williamson
Events that have unfolded since August 9 have forever changed our lives, whether you know it or not. On that Saturday, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot teenager Michael Brown Jr., in broad daylight around noon in the middle of the street on Canfield Drive. Two shots were in the head, four in other parts of his body, for a total of at least six bullets entering Brown’s body. The unarmed 18-year-old’s body lay in the street for more than four hours, right in the middle of the apartment complex, with a crowd that included small children looking on.
This killing and the events that have unraveled since have awoken a sleeping giant here in the St. Louis area, a black community that has felt oppressed, discriminated against, marginalized, and preyed upon by multiple layers of government, law enforcement, and the judiciary, while also being ignored and misrepresented in politics and media. Why are there two Fergusons? Two St. Louises? Two Americas? Two justice systems? Two sets of protocols in law enforcement for handling whites and everyone else? While some of us took full blasts of tear gas to the face for questioning these things, it is time for others to deal with what is driving this type of questioning. Prejudices and institutionalized reactions to these prejudices have gotten us to this point. St. Louis, our status quo in dealing with these questions is no longer acceptable. We have to make some changes.
The typical St. Louis procedure for dealing with these issues is to ignore them completely or to take a passive-aggressive approach in discussing them, if they are discussed at all. I’ll tell you that it is discussed all the time in the black community, because these issues continue to persist. When larger cities in this country were confronted with racial rioting and these major issues in the ’60s and ’70s, some people bragged that blacks in St. Louis didn’t riot and loot or “get out of line.” By not adequately addressing these issues before, things have only gotten worse for the black community. This cannot be fixed with any more scholarship funds, banquet dinners, photo ops, or editorial pieces (including this one).
If you aren’t addressing your friends’, colleagues’, loved ones’, neighbors’, and family members’ subtle and not-so-subtle racism and prejudices, you are a part of the problem. If you grab your purse when you walk past a young black person and don’t question yourself, you are part of the problem. If you feel physically threatened whenever African-Americans express any type of anger and you don’t question yourself, you are part of the problem.
The time for change is now. Too much has happened since August 9 for anyone to go back. We need a new normal that is just and more equitable for everyone in St. Louis. This will require courage. This will require strength. St. Louis, we are capable of doing this, and we will do it together.
Bynes is the Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson Township.
