How can we heal from Ferguson?

[medeak]

How can we tame the verbiage? Let's work to heal and seek solutions.

[bravenak]

1. Fix racism?

Stop making excuses for the denigration, imprisonment, and murder of a race of people in our land.
We have committed enough genocide and we have lived under white supremacy since we founded this nation. We have to fix the foundation otherwise it's all just lip service and empty cheap rhetoric.

[daleanime]

2. Amen....

Clean the wound out before you try put a band-aid on it.

[medeak]

11. am so sorry

you sound so very angry...even your avatar looks angry? It must be horrid being one of color in Alaska? Understand...my Dad was orchestra leader for 50 yrs and was so angry he had to get hotel rooms for Billie Holiday as no one would give to a black woman despite how famous she was. Jim Crow days are still with us unfortunately

[bravenak]

13. Angry? I wish I could get angry.

That is a stereotype. It is easier being black in Alaska than in California for me. My avatar is a ten year old black child in cartoon form.

The solution is so obvious I get irritated at the question.

[medeak]

14. California worse than Alaska?

Please tell me how that is? Only been to Juneau and Skagway...people there were wonderful. But California?? Please don't get irritated with my question.

[bravenak]

15. I lived in both places and experience less racism here than there.

That is just how things are. Not every community in California is welcoming to black people. I lived in Kern county part of the time and i never even heard the word nigger until I moved to Frazier Park. I got calked thousands of slur between 8 and 11 year old. Pushed into creeks. Called slave and Cassie girl (From roll of thunder, hear my cry). I wasn't allowed in the store without a parent because 'you people steal', all that type of shit. It was like living in actual Jim Crow south. No black folks but my mom,me and my sister. The mexicans lived in the trailer par and the whites up on the Hill. We lived with the whites. It was hell. I wanted to live with the mexicans so bad, but my step dad was white and knew better than to live down there. It wasn't done. Hell, he had already married a black woman and had to eat shit for that.

Here in Alaska, I am treated better. Most black people came through the millitary and we don't have segreagation except for by economic status. I lived in rich neighborhoods and had big black teenagers come over for parties and waterfights, and the neighbors just ask if they can send their kids out too. Never called the police on me. If they saw me walking in a snowstorm thry asked if I needded rides. I banged on doors when I got scared of moose and the people just laughed and told me to come inside and wait it out.

This is a red state, but I get treated better. Not completly equal, but better. If I apply for a job, I get a call back. If I get pulled over, then I worry, because I have had a cop pull a gun on me for no reason. But the people are awesome. If I smile and say hey, they smile and say howdy. I worry more about bigotry against Natives, since they bear the brunt of that. The things said about them behind their backs is horrible. I'm sure they say it about me too, but it's the way they do it that is so awful.

There are not enough of us to cause worry. We are a small portion of the population. Very small. We have no 'ghetto' for blacks here. All poorer folks live in the same parts of town no matter the race. Our ghetto looks like some people's suburbs. Relatively clean and nice with kid playing in the middle of the streets. Churches and liquor stores damn near side by side. A whole lot of interrracial couples, I noticed that alot. Lots of people mixing in.

[medeak]

23. now will have to google frazier park

am so sorry... but can understand now AK...met many Vietnam vets there damaged looking for solace. Accepting I suppose. We were weathered out in Skagway and entire town took us in...mayor and city council out of blue made certain we had place to stay. Took us to their private club (actually bar where we met many vets) Fed us dinner and put us up in hotel...was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing bravenak

[medeak]

25. good grief

A total of 2,348 people lived in Frazier Park in 2000,[10] of which 2,055 (87 percent) were white. Other residents included 34 American Indians or Alaska natives, 19 Asians, and 14 blacks. There were 292 Hispanics or Latinos of any race.

[Scootaloo]

43. My finding in Alaska...

was that there just aren't enough black people for whites to care about. The targeted minorities up there are natives and Filipinos (at least, they were in Cordova and Valdez). even that was rather uncommon, and usually dragged up by southerners - the "native' whites were mostly Norwegian and Swedish, second or third-generation, and were more racist towards Norwegians and Swedes than towards nonwhites.

[bravenak]

45. That's what I find too.

We are just not very interesting to the bigots. I hear way more stuff about natives and drinking and people bitching about Native preference for jobs than about black people. Most of the ones who hate us live in Wasilla or somewhere they can be alone. We have some racism in town but it is not as bad as I found elsewhere. Samoans and pacific Islanders fare worse than we do. I expected worse since I had just come from the worst little racist welfare town in California and just though white people were like that. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice everybody was. The welcome wagon came by our house when we moved in. I had never heard of such a thing.

[Scootaloo]

46. Yeah, it was kind of a culture shock coming from the deep south, too

Probably not nearly as jarring, what with my being white, of course.

Alaska's an interesting place, socially. I grew up in Alabama, and have been living in Cascadia for a decade, but I still figure myself as an Alaskan.

[rbrnmw]

29. exactly bravenak

[BootinUp]

3. Gonna take some leadership for one thing. nt

[loyalsister]

4. I think it has to happen locally

The wounds that have been exposed are so often specific to our local communities. As with other grassroots movements, there must be organization and a plan.

This group offers guidelines for dialogue and organization that I think are very productive.

FERGUSON, MISSOURI: A MOMENT OF OPPORTUNITY.....

http://www.everyday-democracy.org/news/ferguson-missouri-moment-opportunity#.VHtyIvldVAE

[medeak]

9. am forwarding link to friends

thank you

[loyalsister]

17. Happy to help

I participated in some of them in my community. One was specifically to address a nazi parade. It was very instructive, because they presented the Not In Our Town model (from Billings, MT) and the experiences of other locales.

Imagine a room where the not so racist white participants in racism let their guards down and reveal their ignorance. A conversation among them and people who have lived it along with their allies. They are the ones who sit on the fence like swing voters and don't speak up or do anything when they see flagrant racism.

It was particularly productive when we were talking about the marriage discrimination amendment that was on the ballot in 2004. There was a pretty shocking moment when someone who admitted being extremely homophobic said "wow, you all are just like anyone else." You could see that he really didn't know that before. It was satisfying yo see that some real learning had taken place.

I think that this strategy is only going to be useful in some areas, but if we see some success, part of the deal is to share stories about it.

[seveneyes]

5. Localize the problem and repair it

Prevent the problem from spreading outside its containment.

[Spazito]

6. What does "heal" mean in this context?

I keep hearing this yet it strikes me as meaningless, it has no context. Does it mean 'it's time to move on' or does it mean 'this wound is only superficial, a band-aid is sufficient to 'fix' the wound.

What does it mean?

[medeak]

10. perhaps used wrong word

thinking we need to use less hateful verbiage and think of solutions. Was fortunate to see MLK in Jackson MS. My grandmother took me and we were the only people on the street as all terrified "trouble coming!" His passive yet so strong presence resonated with me. I miss that.

[Spazito]

16. It is not "hateful verbiage" that needs a "solution"...

It is the rabid racism that is covered with "hateful verbiage". Changing the way a racist speaks will solve nothing.

To me, the noose once used to murder black men has been replaced with a gun in the hands of a white policeman. We no longer see bodies hanging from trees and, instead, see bodies laying in the street for over 4 hours. Only the weapon used has changed.

Strange Fruit by Lady Day

[medeak]

37. you made me cry

lost my 97 yr old Dad recently...he loved and took care of her

[TheKentuckian]

7. Fundamental changes in our justice system and police institutions combined with greatly increased

economic power, opportunities, and equality for poor and minorities along with a vibrant, growing, and accessible middle class.

It will mean a return to ultimate respect for civil liberties. It will mean meaningfully taking on real accountability for the wealthy and connected. It will require removing the police from the pedestal. It to my mind absolutely requires ending the stupid and failed drug war and taking away anti terrorism duties from local law enforcement.

I believe it means an end to private prisons with their perverse systemic incentives, prison labor, and the ability to charge prisoners for being locked up.

I think we will have to actually have serious racial and economic integration.

Ultimately to really and truly do it, probably the destruction of the very concept of race in America by breeding them into oblivion combined with the end of generational wealth and/or combined with ending the practice of rearing our own children.

[medeak]

8. agree

corporate prisons enrage me

[B Calm]

12. Start by drug testing cops after they shoot someone.

[BootinUp]

18. Apparently they did in this case.

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1371210-darren-wilson-drug-testing-results.html

[B Calm]

21. That looks more like a emergency room report for a facial confusion.

[BootinUp]

22. I saw an alcohol breathalyzer test and

and incomplete urine sample report.

[nc4bo]

19. Gotta be willing to admit there's a problem before "fixing" the problem.

I guess because I, myself am black, have a hard time understanding how so many people cannot even admit there is a problem. I see/sense it every fucking damn day yet, trying to educate a white friend that actions A or B have racial undertones in a particular situation- I may as well just have landed in a flying saucer and farted out America the Beautiful.

I guess because they donated to the United Negro College Fund or went bowling with an AA buddy they can't even see their own narrow bigoted attitudes. What the hellever - it is getting really tiring trying to explain this shit to people who can't or refuse to admit we have a race problem in the USA.

Empathy would go a long way with many. Seems to be in short supply.

[medeak]

40. hugs from me n/t

[uppityperson]

20. It is not just "Ferguson" but a whole lot of institutionalized racism and police abuse.

Cameras on every cop, drug test them after every incident, do not let them get by with the bullshit they pull because they can, support other police who speak out against those behaving poorly.

Treat people as people, regardless of skin color. Shit, even seeing people as people is a start.

[Louisiana1976]

30. Excellent ideas. I'd like to say the resignation of Darren Wilson will help towards healing except

that I think it's more than just Wilson that's wrong with the Ferguson police department.

[cpamomfromtexas]

35. Random testing. No incident necessary.

[Katashi_itto]

24. This a joke?

[KingCharlemagne]

26. We can't. It's too late. The ship done sailed on August 9 when they

left Mike Brown's corpse in full public view in the street for 4.5 hours. The ship went down last Monday night when McCulloch gave his press conference to announce there would be no indictment of Wilson.

Sorry to be Cassandra here, but it's like Bleeding Kansas and the opportunities for compromise have vanished.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

28. One would think it is too late to play the "lets move on" card...it was too late with Trayvon

and Jordan Davis, for me.

[Scootaloo]

27. "Tame the verbiage?" Jesus. Okay, first step is to get your priorities in order

"Tone' is not the fucking problem; people who think that is the problem are the real problem.

[KingCharlemagne]

38. Here's what James Baldwin had to say on this matter some 50 years ago:

"To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”

Fuck, I'm white and I'm enraged. (It's actually now morphed into a more implacable anger, but that's by-the-by.) I cannot even begin to imagine what black parents are telling their children.

[Scootaloo]

41. Seeing Tamir Rice gunned down befor the patrol car even came to a complete stop broke me

I have no patience now for people who cluck about tone and shit like that. They can go fuck off to their posterboard slogans and drum circles. Peoples' lives are on the line, it's not the time to be wagging fingers about 'verbiage."

[KingCharlemagne]

44. Please see Hekate's reply #34 in this thread. She (or he?) has nailed the namby-pambyism

behind the semantics of 'healing' and "closure" as a bankrupt rhetorical strategy aimed at making the speaker feel better but not getting to the root cause of the problem. I can't praise Hekate's response highly enough.

[onecaliberal]

31. Stop people with irrational

Fear of ones skin color from using it as an excuse to kill.

[socialist_n_TN]

32. One thing about being pretty old is that some things echo..........

Like this phrase and question. I hear this every time there's some sort of racial incident where people get angry. How can we heal from the inner city riots of the 60s? How are we going to heal from the killing of MLK? How are we going to heal from the Rodney King riots?

I think that "healing" ship has sailed. All of my life has been lived under institutionalized racism. Being white, I haven't been a direct victim of racism, but I know people who have and I've been castigated for being around them. Racism is systemic and the only way to "heal" is to replace the system that fosters racism with one that doesn't condone exploitation in ANY form, racial or economic. But not enough people realize this simple fact yet.

The first step to any "healing" is recognizing what the real problem is. It's called capitalism.

[BootinUp]

33. certainly in the form it has taken

it is the root cause, yes. I am much less optimistic about it getting better than I was 20 or even 10 years ago. I keep waiting for the pendulum to swing back, but something is holding it.

[KingCharlemagne]

36. Hear, hear. The unemployment rate in Watts, CA hovers around 40% currently. Capitalism

did that.

[Scootaloo]

42. Ypu can't heal a stab wound if the knife is still in there...

[Hekate]

34. "Healing" and "closure" are just buzzwords people toss around to make themselves feel better...

...about situations that are absolutely intolerable festering wounds.

I helped organize the funeral for my 6 month old granddaughter. What the hell kind of healing or closure is there for that? Time helps it scab over, and finally scar over, but jeez. At least there was no violence involved, just a cosmic accident called SIDS. The family can eventually really heal, even though there is a scar left.

The Brown family and the Martin family lost teenaged sons for no reason at all, and it was done in each case by violence. We as a society aren't going to have either healing or closure for this, and they certainly never will. All the rest of us will have is collective amnesia (Sandy Hook Elementary School, anyone?) so we can get on with our lives until the next time.

But these are wounds that are intolerable, festering, and inflicted by society on itself. We won't ever get better until we face it square on and do some damn hard work. I thought that work had been mostly done -- but I was wrong. It now appears that we will have to do it over and over and over again, every generation or so. Look at the Voting Rights Act, for instance. How the hell did we get to a place where the SCOTUS is actually helping to overturn it?

[KingCharlemagne]

39. You really MUST convert this post into an OP all its own and elaborate on its themes. This

IS truth! My sincerest compliments!