Mike Brown: A Thought.

The death of Mike Brown sadly isn’t a ‘new story’ in the world of police brutality, but it has really unsettled me. This isn’t the first case of injustice, or blatant racism. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an opinion on it. This time round though, more people seem to have something to say, vastly thanks to social media. In the position I am in I feel it is important to speak out to those who either genuinely misunderstand the struggle or who ignorantly choose to ignore it.

White privilege: When I first heard this term, I’ll be honest I didn’t really understand it. My immediate thought was “mate, I am far from privileged” (although still grateful). Privileged to me was fancy cars and holidays and going to school in a Burberry coat. What privilege actually means though is, for being simply white, I am in social benefit. By default, I rank higher in the safety net than other races. For many, you are not aware of your privilege because you assume that it applies to everyone. We’ve never really been witness to anything other than ‘normal’. Whatever normal is. We assume that the police protect us, that self defence literally means defending ones self and believing that people get punished in accordance to their crime. How wrong we have been.  We don’t fear police. Not really. Why? Because we’ve never grown up needing to. We don’t get randomly stopped and searched like black people do. We don’t have “suspicious” phone calls made about us like our Muslim friends do. Before I go on, please don’t start thinking “uhhhh yeah we do. Police are always arresting my mate Billy” ….well yeah sorry if your mate Billy is selling crack every week I’m not surprised.

Merely saying that you’re not racist so these things are not your fault is missing the point. Of course it isn’t YOUR fault, but have you ever stopped to think how naïve and ignorant that statement truly is? Because you have nothing to do with 21st century racism does that mean it doesn’t exist? Are you aware of all the subtle forms of racism that go undetected? As a white person you go about your day without being forced to consider how the colour of your skin will affect how you are treated. You may find it hard to believe that black and other people of colour feel this way because yes, it has never happened to you! It’s hard to accept that what we’re told is far from reality; that we’re all equal because it’s 2014, that we all have a fair shot at society and that we’re beyond racism. It’s nice to think that we have an equal chance, but that is simply untrue. This is our privilege.

Racial profiling exists. Do you think if Ben stole a couple of Lemon Fanta’s from co-op that he would end up getting shot, 6 times?? Do you think Ben would genuinely fear for his life if he got caught? So what changed for Mike Brown? The fact that he stole from a convenient store and had an altercation with the owner, or the fact he was a large, black male? Ben is not a target for the police. The force haven’t been trained to fear or judge Ben. They have, however, been trained to fear the profile Mike Brown fitted into and automatically see him as a threat.
Did Michael Brown honestly deserve to die in the street, with 6 holes in his body, unarmed and left for 4 and a half hours for ALLEGED theft?

The jury believed the uncorroborated and nonsensical story laid out by Darren Wilson over several eye witnesses.

But let’s just say that Darren Wilson wasn’t fearful of Mike because he was a strong, black men. Let’s though, focus on the other factors which make this whole case such a tragedy.

The system: Black people can say the system failed them but sadly the system has never really been there for them in the first place. The fact is police can kill for almost any reason with little fear or criminal charge. The law gives wide berth to police using deadly force, especially towards black people. Wilson was justified under existing law with his “I was scared” bullshit even though Mike brown was unarmed and around the same size as Wilson.

An indictment would show that Mike Brown’s life mattered. It would show that all sides were considered. How can you justify murder? Protesters want accountability. They want answers for why police violence (especially on the black community) is so blind to the jury. But we don’t live in a society that gives dignity and respect to people like Mike Brown. Instead, we’ve organised our people to deny it wherever possible, through negative stereotypes of criminality.

The Media: Back in August social media went wild with the hashtag “if I was gunned down, which picture would they use?” Would they use a picture of a black man in his doctor’s uniform or use a picture of him smoking weed or being drunk with his friends? The latter, let’s presume. Me, however, which picture would they use for me? Probably me on my graduation day. The point here is the portrayal of races via media influence.

A picture circulated the internet showing “Mike Brown” with a stack of money in his mouth holding a gun. This, however, was not Mike Brown. It was Joda Cain who is accused of murdering his grandmother. Great. Inaccurate and disparaging to the victim. Why was that picture even used? The boy is dead, what more damage could you do to him and his family? How could you slander someone’s name who has just been murdered in cold blood? The media controls the minds of the masses. It tells us who is the victim and who is the guilty (Malcolm X) and using selective photos of black people reminds us that there is a hierarchy and pecking order of who gets saved first.

The media even had the audacity to circulate pictures of Darren Wilson with a small red swelling to his cheek and delve into the injuries he may have suffered during that imaginary scuffle. Poor guy. Must be rough after a long hard day killing people.

How can a white male kill 13 people but be called ‘misunderstood’ by the media yet an unarmed black male gets killed and labelled a thug, or a thief? What about his misunderstanding? What about his potential innocence? After all, there was no confirmation at the time of shooting that Mike had committed any crime.

‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ is a movement that has recently picked up speed. Of course, all lives matter, but when we try and depict the concept of Black Lives Matter we are yet again dehumanising our fellow black community and making something about ourselves. We’re irrelevant right now. It’s like holding a charity run for breast cancer and a group of people sabotaging it by stating that all cancers are bad. Yeah obviously, dickhead, but today we’re focusing on breast cancer so what now? Your input, although true, is unhelpful.

We are still a long way from equality but it starts with us. It starts with protests and riots because nobody was ever heard sitting down quietly. No one was heard when they were peaceful. We urge peace but sadly it never really got us anywhere.
It upsets me that the focus of this issue has (vastly by the media) been over shadowed by the reaction. We need to value human lives more than the material objects which we associate our lives by . I do not want to live in a world where cigars are valued more than human life. In this case, they were valued more than Mike Brown’s. I do not want to live in a world where If I died, people would care more about property damage than justice for my death. People are more furious with the ‘senseless rioting’ than no trial being given for the murder of an unarmed 18 year old.

How can you be mad at a race who’s only small, simple demand is to not be shot at? How can we sit here and slander protests, labelling people thugs and trouble makers because they need their voices  to be heard. Do you know how few and far between riots actually are? Do you know how riots actually start? Do your research – keep up to date with real time news. Ya’ll on twitter cussing out these black people who are protesting over an innocent life when you could be reading the hashtags and learning a little something about a culture you’ve never bothered to try understand before.