By the end of November, Ferguson may be burned to the ground. If Darren Wilson was to get 20 years in prison, it will not make any difference. Madness may prevail...but I hope not....
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In Ferguson, after months of waiting, heartbreak and debate, we expect to finally have some answers when we soon learn if Darren Wilson will be indicted for the shooting death of Michael Brown. According to the media, police are planning a militarized response to anticipated protests. Community activists are booking tickets to be on site when the grand jury’s decision is announced.
The stage is set for conflict.
“Indicting and convicting Darren Wilson may seem like justice, but is it the endgame? What is the strategy for what comes next?”
ALEXIS MCGILL JOHNSON
But, what ultimately will come of these months of protest and the inevitable confrontation following the grand jury decision? Indicting and convicting Darren Wilson may seem like justice, but is it the endgame? What is the strategy for what comes next?
The hard truth remains that in a democracy you must convince enough people of the rightness of both your cause and your remedy. For racial justice activists, this task is immensely challenging given how our brains process race in the midst of existing racial polarization.
Ferguson feels to some like our generation’s Birmingham. But in a more complex time that many would like to think of as “post racial,” with a black president, attorney general, and captain in the St. Louis County police, many are legitimately ambivalent about the role race may have played in the death of Michael Brown. Protests that don’t recognize and speak directly to this ambivalence can polarize rather than unify outrage.
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In Ferguson, after months of waiting, heartbreak and debate, we expect to finally have some answers when we soon learn if Darren Wilson will be indicted for the shooting death of Michael Brown. According to the media, police are planning a militarized response to anticipated protests. Community activists are booking tickets to be on site when the grand jury’s decision is announced.
The stage is set for conflict.
“Indicting and convicting Darren Wilson may seem like justice, but is it the endgame? What is the strategy for what comes next?”
ALEXIS MCGILL JOHNSON
But, what ultimately will come of these months of protest and the inevitable confrontation following the grand jury decision? Indicting and convicting Darren Wilson may seem like justice, but is it the endgame? What is the strategy for what comes next?
The hard truth remains that in a democracy you must convince enough people of the rightness of both your cause and your remedy. For racial justice activists, this task is immensely challenging given how our brains process race in the midst of existing racial polarization.
Ferguson feels to some like our generation’s Birmingham. But in a more complex time that many would like to think of as “post racial,” with a black president, attorney general, and captain in the St. Louis County police, many are legitimately ambivalent about the role race may have played in the death of Michael Brown. Protests that don’t recognize and speak directly to this ambivalence can polarize rather than unify outrage.