Ferguson. The town that never meant anything to me until Michael Brown. If you had said Ferguson to me before that day I would only be thinking of an athletic friend from my childhood. I also would have asked why are you still calling her by her last name? She is married now it's something else. Anyways, I digress. I often do this. As a country we do this often. The question shouldn't be Ferguson : What are your thoughts? The question should be Ferguson, it happened and what can we do as a solution ? No matter what your viewpoint is on the incident you see a problem.
Some of you are mad because of this :
I see this photo as a 3 part issue.
1. The African American ( usually male) is seen as a threat more than that the Caucasian without any cause.
On Facebook , not very long ago, my friend posted :
TO MY WHITE FRIENDS PLEASE USE YOUR WHITE PRIVELEAGE.
I privately wrote her this.
Mindy Starr
. My life experience has been I grew up in an integrated multicultural upper class suburb with a minority mayor in San Antonio. Unheard of for many. I never saw racism beyond the mumbling of my two east Texas farm raised parents because of their ignorance not hate. I never related because there were no socio-economic divides between cultures and everyone was equal. My experience of racism was in the US ARMY when private White with her name tattooed on her neck stole my clothes while I was in the shower , my sodas as they came out of the machine and one day told me I better watch out she came from the ghetto of DC- TO WHICH I replied I come from Texas with sawed off shotguns. The primarily black base in SOUTH CAROLINA private white labelled me racist and then so did my LT. When race had never come into my equation. Then in Louisiana where white people considered me an enemy in my non race based ideals. Black people resented me for not having race based ideas. No winning in a community of equal hate. Then Palestine where the socio-economic divide is so grand racism is based on ignorance. Poor white people behave poorly often because no one has set a standard and minorities are behind in education and so on because of factors like slavery and segregation. Then while in Palestine doing management at a hotel the woman in the kitchen that happen to be black didn't want to be kind didn't want to do her job job to all that it required and accused a Buddhist symbol of peace for being a swastika and had much negative to say about ownership being Indian. Then a young black male employee was called into my office one day because he had had friends over to the hotel acting a fool. I told him because of his saggy pants in his teardrop tattoos that if he continued to not dress in a certain way and talk a certain way and behave a certain way while at work everything that he can't help such as his skin color and his age will work against him and it is unfortunate but is the true fact of society. I've then explained that as a young blonde woman with a high pitched voice no one wants to take me seriously so I have to work harder. He left my office telling people I called him a ni**er
Mindy Starr
Then remember when I beat the ever living tar out of Judah because I was told he used the N word ? Only after to find out because those two boys used it to each other so he thought it was just what you say. I accept the challenge of being aware of my white privilege. I also am aware that I can not make a public statement to my black friends challenge them to challenge others to live beyond the stereotype , accept all things and people are not race based and live beyond your economic status because I would be seen as a privileged white woman speaking in ignorance and being racist. Im not. I accept the issue of racism and hate and the injustice. I accept your challenge . I also ask you to explain to me the flip side I see that took someone like me that saw no racial divide but now as an adult struggles at times to be as color blind because of experiences people of other races have made a racist issue when it wasn't. It jaded me. I lost some sympathy I became a lesser person. Does that make sense ?
I'm writing this privately to you because I trust you and I believe you will be able to hear me and explain and help me understand that piece I find myself missing. I used to never feel jaded in t hhhh is area but I felt a tiny sting while reading and the reasons were because I was once a defender of all and Palestine , the army and Louisiana sort of robbed me of it. Mostly by those I was defending.
I want to keep her identity a secret because I didn't ask her permission . This was her response :
Dearest Mindy: Let me begin by saying that I don't have many friends, mostly acquaintances...so I used the term loosely on FB yesterday. However, I DO consider you my friend, my sister. Please know that I hold Black people accountable for their actions and teach personal responsibility as well as acceptance in my community, encountering mostly Black folks. Nothing that I stated in my post invalidates your experience, which ironically, is very similar to mine. I posted the article because Black people often don't have a voice, failing to speak for themselves out of fear, and sometimes ignorance. I have access to a wide range of people who may ignore my post today, but whose heart my be changed tomorrow or next year. Seed planted. I feel that I have been quiet on the topic too long, allowing some people to believe that everything is ok, that only certain "types" of Black people are impacted by racism, ignorance, and hate.
1. Private White was WRONG! 2.The Black base in SC was wrong. 3. The lady in the kitchen was WRONG. 4. The young back male employee was WRONG. 5. The little boys who influenced Judah (and more importantly their parents) are WRONG. And anyone else who has misjudged you is WRONG.
But my dear dear friend, YOU are ALIVE. Trayvon Martin Is DEAD. Michael Brown is DEAD. Eric Garner is DEAD. Sean Bell is DEAD. Timothy Stansbury is DEAD. Oscar Grant is DEAD. And the list goes on. I DON'T want MY SON on this list. He is much more likely to be on the list than Judah is.
Black people make up approximately 13% of the United States of America. Therefore, the real power rests in the hands of people who look like you.
There is so much I want to say, other things that I need to explain. And in time, I will. But due to time constraints, I will leave you with this. We all get tired. Become jaded. Get tired of helping people. Wanting better for people who don't seem to want better for themselves. But, I know that there have been white people who have committed egregious acts against you. Yet, you didn't give up on White people in general. You have beautiful white children, a loving white husband, and trustworthy white friends. So, why give up on anyone else...? I don't think you can, and still call me your friend.
We are trying to fix a legacy that has been 400 years in the making. Despite what people say/think, the brutality of slavery was not fixed with the Civil Rights Movement. The pain lives on. Black people are accountable for allowing the atrocities of the past to enslave them in the present. And white people are responsible for perpetuating the untruth that my Blackness makes me 3/4 human. Mindy, people like us-you and ME- can help heal the division. But if we stay silent, nothing will change.
1. Private White was WRONG! 2.The Black base in SC was wrong. 3. The lady in the kitchen was WRONG. 4. The young back male employee was WRONG. 5. The little boys who influenced Judah (and more importantly their parents) are WRONG. And anyone else who has misjudged you is WRONG.
But my dear dear friend, YOU are ALIVE. Trayvon Martin Is DEAD. Michael Brown is DEAD. Eric Garner is DEAD. Sean Bell is DEAD. Timothy Stansbury is DEAD. Oscar Grant is DEAD. And the list goes on. I DON'T want MY SON on this list. He is much more likely to be on the list than Judah is.
Black people make up approximately 13% of the United States of America. Therefore, the real power rests in the hands of people who look like you.
There is so much I want to say, other things that I need to explain. And in time, I will. But due to time constraints, I will leave you with this. We all get tired. Become jaded. Get tired of helping people. Wanting better for people who don't seem to want better for themselves. But, I know that there have been white people who have committed egregious acts against you. Yet, you didn't give up on White people in general. You have beautiful white children, a loving white husband, and trustworthy white friends. So, why give up on anyone else...? I don't think you can, and still call me your friend.
We are trying to fix a legacy that has been 400 years in the making. Despite what people say/think, the brutality of slavery was not fixed with the Civil Rights Movement. The pain lives on. Black people are accountable for allowing the atrocities of the past to enslave them in the present. And white people are responsible for perpetuating the untruth that my Blackness makes me 3/4 human. Mindy, people like us-you and ME- can help heal the division. But if we stay silent, nothing will change.
What stuck out to me the most? What made me cry and feel a bit dead in my heart?
The fact that as a survivor of abuse all at the hands of Caucasian males , a rape at the hands of a Hispanic male and never ending sexual harassment at the hands of White males I had only given up on race... Black men and women. Not completely and I cringe at racist remarks however my dear friend identified something I couldn't see. I had only lost hope in one culture and it wasn't the one that had done me the most harm!!! Why? I believe because it is perpetuated in media. Whether it is music , tv or anything really it is perpetuated with baggy pants, gold chains, Friday ( the movie), Menace to Society(movie), rap music and so on. Here is the unfortunate part to me is that I believe it is an inner cultural issue because these things are done within the culture however the media blows it up 1000x and that is everyone's responsibility! If there is such thing as white privilege I use mine now to ask those I connect with STOP THE STEREOTYPE AND QUIT THE HATE!
This photo makes people angry. All I can say is as people no matter your race or gender we generally make things worse! Stop it!
I wanted to say to all my non black friends that pictures of riots in Ferguson with sentences such as :
You're proving you're ghetto. This only takes away from you saying it's not a race issue and you sound/look racist.
To my Black friends please stop hating all white people on Facebook with videos and quotes it doesn't solve the race issues. It makes it worse.
I wanted to say to all my non black friends that pictures of riots in Ferguson with sentences such as :
You're proving you're ghetto. This only takes away from you saying it's not a race issue and you sound/look racist.
To my Black friends please stop hating all white people on Facebook with videos and quotes it doesn't solve the race issues. It makes it worse.
I don't know them. I have no idea what sort of people they are day to day. I do know this As parent we all do the best we can even if it's not a great job. As children we make a mess of the world but in our ability to grow up and become adults the lucky ones try to do better.
Michael did not have the ability to grow up.
His parents must be grieving. They lost a child.
None of us were there.
The best I can do is assume the officer was doing the best he could that day on his job.
Vandalism doesn't stop hate or right wrongs.
I ask you all what are your thoughts on solutions? What can I , we do to make the world better ?
#STOPTHEHATE
#FERGUSON
#MICHAELBROWN
#WHITEPRIVELAGE
#SOLUTIONSONLY
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