Ferguson

A young man died.  A kid really, an 18-year-old boy.  Unarmed, but maybe charging the policeman.  Killed for jaywalking.  Would this have happened to a white boy?  Would this have happened in a less segregated suburb?  Would this have happened if Zimmerman hadn't walked away without a charge?

There was a hashtag, #PrayforFerguson.  And it's not the right time to pray.  It is the time to be angry, for the white majority in this country to look at our privilege and be angry that it makes criminals out of people for being black.  That it makes riot gear available to hold off protestors who are peaceful.  That it allows for us to walk into our houses at night and be safe and if we forget the key, our neighbors invite us in for coffee or lemonade, but if we were black, the cops would be called on us(look at Henry Louis Gates).  That when the police stop us, we get a ticket or a warning and we drive off.  We live.  We, who were born with white skin, have benefits from that and it is time that we help change the system.  That we end racial profiling.  There is no more black on black crime than there is white on white crime.  These are lies.

White people have shorter sentences, more likely to receive parole, less likely to be in prison. 

This is not American.  We, the people, does not grant rights by the color of your skin or your gender or who you love.  It's time we stop letting the laws divide us.  It's time we stop praying for something that happened in a community far away and time we start changing laws, changing rules, helping us and helping others.  Because what happened to Michael Brown is not an isolated incident, it is a racial divide that sometimes is deep and is very rarely shallow.