A few months ago, a tragedy occurred. Not a unique tragedy, really, but a tragedy nonetheless. In my estimation, the responses have been absurd and unmeasured. At the behest of a good friend of mine, I'm going to talk about it.
To begin with, the relevant information: A police officer by the name of Darren Wilson shot and killed a young man named Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson on August 9, 2014. There are two stories regarding exactly what happened.
The first: Darren Wilson drove up next to Michael Brown in the street while he was jaywalking, noted that he matched the description of the perpetrator of a recent nearby robbery, and proceeded to question him. When he tried to step out of the car, Brown attacked him and tried to take his gun. After a tussle, Brown ran, but turned around and charged again, at which point Wilson shot him repeatedly, killing him.
The second: Darren Wilson drove up next to Michael Brown in the street while he was jaywalking and then proceeded to pull away after Brown and his friends agreed to get off the street. Then Wilson backed his patrol car toward Brown again, slammed his door into the group, and got stuck as the door recoiled into him as he attempted to step out. At this point, Brown and his friends ran, but Wilson mercilessly opened fire, wounding Brown. As Brown kneeled in the street with his hands up, Wilson walked up to him and shot him again at point blank range, killing him.
In the first account, Officer Wilson is simply doing his job and Michael Brown is the unfortunate victim of his actions. In the second, Officer Wilson is an unprovoked assailant and Michael Brown is an innocent man murdered in cold blood. At this point, I must admit that I have made a point of not following this case closely, because I knew how much it would anger me. I do not have - nor do I claim to have - all of the relevant facts. Luckily, my wrath is not directed at those who believe one story or the other, but we'll get around to that.
At this point, I would like you to look over everything I have said so far. Do you notice something missing? You might, because I have excluded two words that nearly every other response to this death so far has found primary: white and black. It just so happens that Darren Wilson's skin is white and Michael Brown's was black.
But why did I exclude such important facts? The whole country has declared this a racial crime, how can I ignore the crux of the issue?
Simply put, because it is unimportant.
Either Darren Wilson did his job admirably and was forced to shoot Michael Brown, or Darren Wilson is a crooked cop who chose to attack and kill an innocent man. If the first is true, then Officer Wilson ought not be charged with any heinous crime. If the latter is true, then Officer Wilson ought to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This is true if Darren Wilson is white, black, yellow, orange, green, blue, red, or purple. This is true if Michael Brown is black, white, persimmon, apricot, chartreuse, beige, cobalt, or aquamarine.
"But Darren Wilson is a racist pig who hates black people!!!" you scream. So what? Either he did his job the way he was supposed to or he did not. What goes on in his head is irrelevant. What if Darren Wilson didn't like blondes? If he did his duty and was in a situation where he had to shoot a blonde, would that make it a crime based on the color of the victim's hair? No, because it first has to be a crime. If it is a crime, then his motive is irrelevant.
I could discuss the grand jury's decision, the foolishness of rioting and looting, and the inanity of the majority of responses at length, but I don't want to because it's ultimately an unimportant and fleeting event.
Instead, I want to end with this: my heart is broken. It is broken because a man died, regardless of whether that death is justified or not. But my heart is also broken because every time someone classifies a human being by the color of their skin, he encourages segregation. Every time a man with dark skin identifies himself as part of a black "culture", he encourages segregation; and every time a man with light skin identifies himself as culturally different from those with dark skin, he encourages segregation.
You were not born as a color; you were born as a human being. Racism will not end until we stop identifying the officer as white and the deceased as black, and instead identify them both as human beings. I hope that change comes soon.
