People Are People. Maybe Someday Everyone Will Believe That.

I'm white.  My wife is black. Any kids we have would be black. Not half white/half black. Black. That is how they will be seen, and treated. And I have seen a bit of how Miss Mox is treated, and she has told me of her experiences. And I have seen how her brothers are treated. If you think racism is dead, you're wrong. If you don't think race is an issue in the Brown/Wilson case, and wasn't in the Martin/Zimmerman case, you're wrong. You are ignorant.

I've been using that word a lot lately, because sadly, it describes so many of us. And worse is willful ignorance, which again describes too many. In this case, mostly conservatives, mostly apologists for racism. You've heard most of the facts, and plenty of conjecture and hyperbole, particularly if you have been exposed to the virus that is Fox News.  I won't go over them more.  There won't be a trial.  Why not?  A grand jury is supposed to decide whether there is sufficient evidence for a trial, which there most certainly is in this case.  It is not supposed to decide on guilt or innocence, but it has.  Ask yourself why there wouldn't be a trial.  And ask yourself why people are so upset.

I've tried to be fair, going through scenarios in my mind, playing the devil's advocate.  The best case I can hypothetically construct for Wilson is that he overreacted.  He got into a scuffle with Brown, while he was in the car.  And shot him.  Maybe he feared for his life, and I can almost stay with him that far (though he surely lost his cool and overreacted.)  But then- he gets out of car, and far from there he shoots several more times. How can anyone justify that? It was an assassination in street. Most police officers are decent people.  Well, most try to be.  I've lived long enough to have seen plenty of "respect my authority" cops and cadets too.  At the very least this guy was not a professional cop- he lost his cool and mishandled the situation.

There are so many apologists for this, trying to divert attention from the core of the matter.  Yes, yes, blacks shoot whites too- and they go directly to jail. When whites shoot blacks- not so much. And especially not when police do it. Then there's "Race is only an issue because you're making it one." Yes!  Because otherwise it would be ignored.  Anybody not like you, you'll ignore.  You won't even make an effort to begin to understand their situation, their problems.  This is about unequal justice- that is exactly what this is about. So yes, it's about race. And yes, it deserves protest. Our country is a bit more equal than it was fifty years ago, but it is still far from equal. And that progress has come from laws, sometimes enacted against "the will of the people.And from protest. Sitting quietly does not change things. Peaceful protest is best, and it's a problem when some get violent.  But they will be caught and punished.  Some people even say not to protest peacefully; "what is the big deal?"  And they help me lose faith in humanity.

Look.  You don't know what you don't know. I'm no expert but at least I admit that there is plenty I don't understand, and that my experience is limited. If you have only whites as friends (coworkers don't count), if your main news source is Fox, then you have a wildly distorted view of America, of reality.  Try opening your eyes and being a decent human being.