We’ve argued about Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Missouri, we’ve debated the Trayvon Martin case, and now we’re discussing what white privilege means and whether it exists in any significant way. Each issue of this type contains specific and debatable details, but there is another reason they elicit such heated and recurring controversy. Whether you recognize the aftermath of systemic racial inequality in the U.S. or not, we are all nevertheless confronted by it every time a Michael Brown type incident evokes intense reactions. Today’s mass outcries, suspicions, and general distrust are not incoherent responses to straightforward events.
Poverty and incarceration rates, among other things, show clear racial disparity. The causes for such disparity may not be as clear, but it would be stupid to overlook the affects of systematic inequality. The attitudes that sustained the centuries-long institution of slavery (in all of its iterations) do not simply go away with time, much less in the space of a few decades. There are deep social rifts, and they must be resolved by an overwhelming national consciousness that appreciates historical context and brings people together over a common purpose. The United States is utterly divided in far too many ways.
Bryan Stevenson covers an enormous amount of ground in his 16 minute interview with Jon Stewart. His message is broader than pointing out past wrongs and simple injustices; he espouses a view of human dignity and appreciation that I think we should all take into consideration as we address current events.
Amongst a host of bad, I found two good things to say;
He speaks and dresses well
His stats weren’t very wrong.
The rest is a little too vulgar for me to go into (or at least until I’m in the right mood for that). I won’t be listening to any more of his speeches.
Yeah listening to Stewart interview him, there’s really no way i would expect conservatives to react with anything but disgust to what he says. As for myself, nothing he says is really new to me (though the bit Fuse quoted on the death penalty is particularly well put) but i mostly agree with him. The US is, quite unsurprisingly, collectively neurotic about race. The reasons are obvious, given history. Even less surprisingly, black people themselves are hypersensitive to anything that smacks of racism. So particularly when blacks are getting shot in disproportionate numbers by mostly non-black policemen (and armed wannabes), it’s hard not to play the “racism” card, even if it’s not always a racism thing.
The neurosis plays out differently for whites and blacks: blacks are rightfully angry, resentful, and distrustful of whites, while whites are rightly guilty, defensive, and scared of being labelled racist. As a result, interracial violence is always highly politically controversial and emotionally charged, even when racism isn’t much a factor (though how can we really say for sure?), because such violence recalls the long history of systemic violence used in this country to subjugate people based on their skin color. And Stevenson is especially right about the cultural and social devastation wrought by said historical violence and how that is just not something that blacks can bounce right back from. Especially since the socioeconomic and cultural effects of slavery and institutionalized racism in this country linger on, often in dramatic and hard to ignore ways.
That’s a liberal diatribe though, and an almost stereotypical one. i’m sure most conservatives probably get a little nauseous when they read it.
There’s nothing particularly mind blowing about him. I just thought he expressed himself well and I admire the way he focuses on uniting people.
I’ve often been accused of pointing out the obvious, but my charge is that people fail to fully appreciate much of what even they think to be obvious. In a way, Bryan Stevenson doesn’t really say anything new but what he says is in some cases said well enough that it makes a greater impression than the hundred people who said it before him.