[todaysdate]
By Eric Blauer
This is my list of things I am sick of witnessing regarding the Ferguson event, protests and riots.
- I am not interested in hearing from anyone who burns or loots.
- I am not interested in listening to anyone who hasn’t suffered from racial threat, violence or fear.
- I am not interested in hearing from safe, protected, well off white people.
- I am not interested in hearing from only men in power.
- I am not interested in hearing from black opportunists who victimize or demonize.
- I am tired of watching the selective, racial profiling and race baiting of news reporting.
- I am tired of a judicial system that is structured to favor the rich, privileged, white person of power or position.
- I am not interested in hearing from any clergy in Ferguson that were not out on the night of the verdict in solidarity by protecting people, property and peace.
- I protest the ratings perps who will rape this story then move on to the next victim in the name of money.
- I am not interested in hearing from any Christian leader or church that isn’t a racial representative of the Kingdom of God in their ministries and worship services.
I am ashamed that this list shines way too much light on myself and that this fact, is my indictment.
Eric — not a bad list — and I get your point BUT it is too easy for those of us who live in a 95% white area to not reflect on the meaning of Ferguson in our own lives. I am with you in that I don’t want to hear the “immediate reactionary opinions” from the people on the list BUT I am interested in how we can go deeper, to see beyond our prejudices — to get out of our own skin to see it from “the others” life perspective…. to move out of self into love as God would have us do. How do we create this space in our culture so we can move beyond our fear and prejudice, through our own wounded-ness and anger to the deep compassion and openness to the other.
I think it comes from purposeful friendship and engagement with those who are not familiar. It takes moving to our margins more and choosing to be present in lives and communities where their suffering becomes ours too. I think it’s part listening, part speaking out, part prayer, part purposeful worship that integrates not just segregates. I think it’s raising families that hopefully will live out a different world in the future. It means severing the umbilical cord to media cancers that feed off the tumors in our times. I think this site is part of voice calling in the wilderness that helps bring about the biblical equity that we need to stand on stable ground with one another. I think it takes repentance and faith and a willingness to humble ourselves and take the heat for what we have done and who we have been and at the same times be courageous to stand up and refuse to be forced to be who people say we were.
Pretty good list, Eric. I’m with you, especially the race baiting media. It’s disgusting how they have reported on this story. There’s only two people(two families) that I feel bad for and that is Brown and Wilson. No one knows really what happened but regardless, two families lives were changed forever.
The others, I don’t give a damn about. And I mean blacks looking for a reason to loot and violate using Browns death as justification. Nor do I give a damn about cops who use their badge to abuse their power.
And this probably isn’t a popular opinion on a left wing topic, but I feel like Obama dropped the ball on this. He could have done more to make protests more peaceful and he pretty much turned his head. What that shows me is no matter how influential a black man becomes, no matter if he’s the president of the USA, they will not get involved when the topic involves black people that come from less fortunate backgrounds. They won’t involve themselves because if they spoke their true feelings they would lose all “street cred” and they don’t want to be labeled an Uncle Tom. Until black men of power and influence(obama, jackson, sharpeton) call out silly acting black people, things like this will continue to happen.
So your only interested in confirmation bias is what your saying then.