Thank You for Listening

I am in St. Louis.

I have really struggled with what to write, if anything.  I’m not sure I have anything meaningful to add to this conversation that has not already been said.  My very good friend and colleague reminded me at 4:30am (I couldn’t sleep anyway), that as a white woman with higher education and arguably access to many opportunities, I have a responsibility to say something.  So here are my thoughts on the situation in Ferguson.

First of all, our justice system is broken.  It is broken civilly, it is more broken criminally.  It has been broken for a long time.  People who have sat in jail for years can now prove they have been wrongfully convicted through DNA evidence.  We can all recite numerous cases where we were certain the defendant was guilty but the jury was unable or unwilling to render that verdict. 

I practiced as a defense attorney for a couple of years and I can tell you first hand that you fare much better with the prosecutor when you show up with an attorney you have retained yourself than when you don’t.  There is a huge discrepancy between the haves and the have nots.  It is nauseating. There is little justice in our justice system.

I was not on that grand jury.  I have not heard the testimony nor have I read the hundreds of pages of documents that have been released.  I was not in Ferguson that day.  I am not going to speculate on whether the right decision was reached in this particular case.  I don’t know what happened and I’m going to venture to guess that you don’t either.

What I do know is parents were forced to bury their son due to circumstances that were possibly avoidable. We can be compassionate and empathetic and find ways to support this family through a very difficult time.  What I also know is that although this police officer is not facing criminal charges, his life is inevitably changed forever.  Our kids have a right to be safe. Our police officers have a right to protect themselves.  There is much gray area between those statements.  

I have heard many, many hurtful comments over the past 24 hours.  Many of which I am not going to justify by repeating here.  I’ve heard people say that racism doesn’t exist anymore because we have an African American President.  I’ve heard the people involved in the civil unrest be referred to as animals.   People are saying that violence isn’t the answer.

Here’s the thing.  Racism is alive and well in your community and if you think it isn’t then you can continue to bury your head in the sand, or you can do something maybe a little more productive and just listen.  People are hurting.  People are struggling.  Just because you can name a few people who are successful and have dark skin doesn’t mean we have solved this problem.  It just means that maybe those people had access to opportunities that others do not.

I do not condone violence.  However, if this had been a peaceful protest would anything have changed?  This city has come to a grinding halt.  Schools are closed, shopping centers are closed, people are understandably cautious.  The fires, the vandalism, have sparked a conversation in this community.  It is a conversation that seriously needs to be had.  I watched the local news last night and they paraded leader after leader through interviews, all of them were white.  The police were white, the police chiefs were white, the prosecutor was white, the legal consultants were white, the news anchors were white, and the mayors except for the Clayton Mayor, also white.  If you were a tourist in this town, you would think there are no black people.  That is a serious problem.  We have not solved racisim in the northeast but we’ve at least made some strides in the right direction.  There is some non-Caucasian representation in the leadership of some of our communities and certainly on our police forces.

I don’t expect you all to agree with me.  That is what makes this a great country, that we all have a voice.  I’m just pleading for tolerance, for understanding, for sensitivity, and above all, I am just asking you to listen.

We are all brothers and sisters.  We can use this uncomfortable place as an impetus for real change.  Change starts with all of us putting our judgments and our preconceived notions to the side and understanding what really matters.  Please turn off the news, stop inciting hate through Facebook posts, and just listen.  Thank you.