The
United States is a selectively forgetful nation, thanks to the
mainstream media in this country. We are trained to remember
everything that reinforces apple-pie patriotism, while any news that
challenges the notion that America is the greatest nation on earth is
quickly buried.
So
it is that many American media outlets have begun to forget Michael
Brown, the unarmed Black teenager who was shot to death by a white
cop in the town of Ferguson, Missouri. (Just as we've been made to
forget our ongoing problems with mass shootings
in this country, and the implications for American society.) I have
to confess that I am a bit amazed by the speed with which Mr. Brown's
story was replaced with stories about germs on keyboards, a rehash of
the last moments of the RMS Titanic, the saga of Michael Sam, and a
list of freaky things that happen to ordinary people, such as “8
year old girl saved by adoring pit bull.”
Fortunately,
Mr. Brown's story isn't entirely buried. The United Nations
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has issued a
condemnation
of the shooting of Michael Brown and a call to the United States to
eliminate ongoing racism and discrimination in this country. The
committee also called attention to the pernicious effect of
“stand-your-ground” laws in this country, and the continued
inequitable enforcement of the law by police departments which remain
largely white. But that's not front-page news today at Aol.com, or the New
York Times, or USA Today, and certainly not at the Wall
Street Journal, which was eaten a few years ago by Rupert
Murdoch, a bigoted rich Australian who applied for US citizenship in
the 1980's so that he could consolidate his ownership of American
media. And Michael Brown certainly didn't make it onto the cover of
People Magazine and other magazines like it, which have indeed
at times chosen to publish stories about ordinary Americans caught in
extraordinary circumstances. I guess he didn't have the potential
star power of Elizabeth
Smart.
Forgetfulness
can be dangerous. As can be the refusal to think through the
implications of a thing. When the town of Ferguson erupted in unrest
after the shooting of Michael Brown, the doofus mayor of Ferguson
declared
that “We don't have a race problem here.” That statement is an
example of willful blindness. And as Margaret Heffernan stated in
her book titled Willful Blindness, problems that are ignored
only become worse. The problem in the United States is that for a
very long time, the members of one dominant culture have subjugated,
oppressed, exploited and in many cases murdered other peoples both in
the United States and abroad, simply on the basis that the skin of
those other peoples was not white. The privileged people of the U.S.
did so in order to secure all the benefits, both material and
psychological, of being at the top of a heap. Such behavior has
unintended consequences, even though the consequences may seem to be
a long time in coming. Eventually the heap comes down, due in part
to the consequences of the actions of the people who built the heap
in the first place.
Consider
the “Stand Your Ground” laws, the latest outgrowth of the rabid
devotion to “2nd Amendment Rights” on the part of many
Republicans and white supremacists. A Wikipedia
article states that, according to many researchers, the effect of
those laws was “...a significant increase in homicide and
injury of whites, especially white males.” (Emphasis mine.)
Consider also something I wrote in an earlier post, namely, what
happens when a large, dominant group scapegoats another smaller and
weaker group. Eventually, if the scapegoating is cruel enough, the
smaller group is eradicated or removes itself from the scene – but
the dysfunction which led to its scapegoating continues to exist
within the larger group. There must always be a scapegoat in such
groups. Therefore, a fight ensues to see who gets to create a new
heap, and who will be at the top of it. The losers get to occupy the
place of “poor trash.”
Some of the newly-minted trash will be quite surprised at the change
of identity bestowed on them by their newly-minted masters. With
that change of identity will come the deprivation of civil rights and
the denial of due process, along with pervasive, yet subtle
discrimination based on the place of one's birth, one's income level
or the last names of one's parents. All these things have happened
before – even in seemingly homogeneous societies.
But
all this assumes that the builders of the heap are allowed to
continue sitting at its top. Those who comprise the lower levels of
the heap might just decide one day to tear the heap down. That sort
of thing has also happened before. A nation can't unrestrainedly
exploit its natural resource base without reaching a point of
diminishing, then negative returns. Neither can it exploit other
peoples without the same thing happening. So if you're not in a forgetful mood, here's something to think about: first, how, in the midst of diminishing resources, to create a society (or a social circle) in which resources are shared equitably and people are valued equally.
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