Another Young Black Man Has Been Killed

I’ve been discouraged by many of the conversations that have taken place in mainstream and social media regarding the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. So much of the discussion has concerned itself with the minutiae of the situation:

What occurred before the shooting? How far was Michael Brown from the police officer when he was shot? What is the exact law concerning when police may fire their weapons at unarmed citizens? Was Michael Brown a suspect in the robbery/shoplifting incident, and does it even matter?

I’ve seen Facebook threads with scores of comments arguing various sides and fine points having to do with each of these questions and many more. I’m sure that, in a legal sense, they are important questions. But they tend to distract us from the larger issue: our young black men are being killed at an alarming rate.

For every high-profile incident like the shooting of Michael Brown, there are dozens of other such incidents that draw little or no attention from the media. The killing of young black men is an everyday occurrence in our country. The blood they shed is the price being paid for systemic racism. Our denial of and indifference to this ongoing travesty is what allows this system to continue.

For me, the hard truth of the matter is that, if Michael Brown had been white, he very likely would not have been shot.

When people with guns (whether it’s self-appointed neighborhood patrollers like George Zimmerman or police officers like Darren Wilson) see a young black man, they are much likelier to pull the trigger (often repeatedly) than they are when they see a young white man in a similar situation.

Obsessing over the particular details of one incident keeps us spinning our wheels rather than working for justice on a larger scale. Whatever the outcome of the case in Ferguson, we have a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

Our country has not yet squarely faced the problem of systemic racism. For those of us who are white, it may seem a largely invisible problem. But for people of color, it is an all-too-real and all-too-deadly reality.

Another young black man has been killed. Will we respond by watching canned news reports and arguing over legal technicalities until our brains are numb, or will we start to work to address the evil of systemic racism?