FERGUSON EXPOSES RACISM
Posted by Tim Bryce on December 12, 2014
BRYCE ON POLITICS
– History repeats itself.
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Last month Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. I listened patiently to the prosecutor’s explanation of the decision. As someone living several hundred miles away, I had no reason to doubt the Grand Jury discharged their responsibilities with due diligence. They digested considerable physical evidence and sat through many hours of witness testimonies before rendering their decision. It all seemed rather cut-and-dry to me. Evidently, it wasn’t to many others in Ferguson who went on a rampage of destruction. What we witnessed was a wilding where the buildings of innocent merchants were ransacked and destroyed. One can only assume the rabble believed themselves to be above the law and turned to vigilantism.
We saw this same type of reaction in the Treyvon Martin case. In the rabble’s mind, George Zimmerman was guilty until proven innocent. Even then, there was still unrest.
Actually, the upheaval in Ferguson is reminiscent of the Watts riots of 1965 whereby a black motorist was arrested for reckless driving by a white motorcycle cop. Word got out about the incident, a crowd formed, and escalated into six days of riots and violence. As in Ferguson, the National Guard was called in to help maintain order. Regardless, hundreds of businesses were looted and burned, thousands were arrested, and 34 people killed. The parallel between Ferguson and Watts is simply too uncanny to overlook, even if the two events were separated by a half a century.
In 1965, Democrat Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. The era was marked by Civil Rights and race relations. Prior to the Watts Riots, Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and in 1965 the Congress passed the rest of his “Great Society” legislation which lives on in the form of programs for welfare, Medicare, education reform, consumer protection, and the War on Poverty. In other words, great changes were in the offing for America, until Watts erupted thus igniting a series of race riots throughout the country.
As in Ferguson, the rioters of Watts showed little respect for the law. The ensuing violence had less to do with race relations as it did about simple thuggery. The same is true in Ferguson. The rioters only wanted an excuse to steal and destroy. Michael Brown was just the excuse to unleash their fury. In reality, those that rioted in Ferguson had no true regard for the tragedy of Michael Brown.
So here we are, nearly 50 years after Watts with another Democratic president who is perhaps the most racially divisive in history. Exit polls from the recent 2014 mid-term elections reveals both blacks and whites believe race relations have gotten worse, not better. Among blacks, unemployment has risen, as well as poverty under Mr. Obama. Many are simply giving up and becoming wards of the state, thereby stoking racial unrest.
So, were the Ferguson riots triggered by racism, or was it simply disrespect for the law? Actually, it was a little of both. As in Watts, Ferguson was a tinder box ready to explode due to the discord in the black community. The rioters simply wanted to vent their frustrations, not so much about Martin but about their lives in general. Whether the Grand Jury indicted Officer Wilson was immaterial, they were going to riot regardless of the verdict.
Keep the Faith!
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Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com
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NEXT UP: A SUGGESTION TO SOLVE THE “GULF OF MISTRUST” – My solution is considerably simpler than the President’s (and less expensive).
LAST TIME: THE ARROGANCE OF THE LEFT – Are Americans stupid?
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Tim Bryce said
A C.T. of Oldsmar, Florida wrote…
“I would go as far to say that the DOJ stoked the fire and fanned the flames. Lecturing the residents, reportedly, on “white privilege” behind closed doors. Is almost as bad as the step-father yelling to the mob to “burn the m******* down””
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Albert McClelland said
It’s nice to see your picture..Merry Christmas…
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone Albert H McClelland O.S.M.,PM
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Tim Bryce said
An R.B. from Melbourne, Florida wrote…
“Racism: Blacks are the racist ones this time around. A good comparison one can make between Watts Riot and Ferguson is that looting happened–small businesses suffered; people stole others’ belongings in the name of racism. this makes sense.”
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Tim Bryce said
An R.T. of Lakeland, Florida wrote…
“Yep! led by a racist president! Obama et al is constantly reminding blacks that they are supposed to be inferior & being discriminated against. Obama keeps telling white folk that we should hate Blacks — A dumb-beat of constant reminders… In my humble opinion it is too bad that Obama doesn’t deal with the real issues such as an inferior education system in the Black Communities, Black kids being born to kids, etc. With the New Generation Plan put forth by Lyndon Baines Johnson the Black Community began to un-ravel! Quite a legacy LGJ leaves But then folks, I am a white guy and this is just my opinion.”
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William Achbach said
What is the most discouraging thing to me is that racism 60 years ago was overwhelmingly a matter of ignorance and prejudice. Today it is increasingly a matter of voluminous information (at least for those not blinded to reality) and “POSTjudice” (if I may propose that word). Dr. King longed for the day when ‘his children’ would “…be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” That day, sadly, may have arrived.
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Tim Bryce said
A J.Z. of Montgomery, Illinois wrote…
“Well over 96% of the black community did vote for Obama and Obama had supporters like Emil Jones use peer pressure against those in the black community who resisted. Jones, Obama’s godfather, called critics of Obama Uncle Toms for example, and said they had to support their black brother. Obama’s own longtime church, Trinity United, has a black values system on its website that requires pledging allegiance to all black leadership, and is openly racist. Obama and the Democrats were trying to recreate the Watts Riot which is why Obama and Holder and Sharpton and Jackson were all race baiting in the city within the first few days of the Brown incident. They wanted to trigger a riot from the start.”
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A SUGGESTION TO SOLVE THE “GULF OF MISTRUST” « THE BRYCE IS RIGHT! said
[…] FERGUSON EXPOSES RACISM […]
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Tim Bryce said
A D.A. of Piedmont, South Dakota wrote…
“Tim, I am agreeing with another commentator that Brown was a lousy poster boy, but the fact is, there are very few good ones. I have read some of the stats on how many people are killed by police and also in police custody, and I just don’t see any conspiracy or dark and secret cover-ups. I didn’t always think or believe this. I was among the young ignorant that would spew slogans such as “screw the police”… but I know better now. I have worked with them now. Brown might be alive had he not attacked a cop, but even had he survived being arrested, given his track record, I doubt he would have survived another year. I had a link to an article, but can’t find it now, but it was an article that dealt with just blacks who were killed while in police custody. And while I think there is a big difference between being killed BY police and dieing in their custody, this article gave a very brief description of the people and the circumstances of their death.
The people in Ferguson were going to riot no matter what the verdict. “
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William Achbach said
Perspective on the First Couple’s perception of the severity of the problem:
In an interview with USA Today, Michelle and Barrack Obama both cited being mistaken for a working person as examples of their racist treatment at the hands of white society: Michelle for a clerk while shopping in a store and the Prez for a waiter at a black-tie affair. Having had both occur myself over the years (and being indisputably an old white guy), I fail to see the racist overtones in such mistaken identity. I am, however, perceptive enough to recognize glaring cases of hypersensitivity when they jump up and hit me in the face. After five years of exposure to the imperial attitude exuded by our Community Organizer-in-Chief, I also can see how he’d object to being mistaken for someone actually working for a living. Do you suppose he’s ever been mistaken for a caddy on a golf course?
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Tim Bryce said
Bill – As I wrote this morning in Facebook:
“I was in Publix yesterday and was asked by a shorter woman if I could reach up and get a box of tea for her from the top shelf. How racist can you get?”
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William Achbach said
Ummm…well…maybe if she was a “shorter-woman-of-color.” 🙂
Seriously though, maybe the biggest ongoing battle I fought in teaching Economics was disabusing my students of the notion that correlation = causation (i.e. the mistaken idea that just because two things happen in close time/space proximity that one necessarily causes the other). That’s merely inconvenient to, possibly, stupid in an academic discussion…devastating (especially when coupled with hypersensitivity) in interpersonal relationships and social settings!
Did anyone ever sum up that dilemma better than Will Rogers? “It ain’t so much what we don’t know that’s the problem. It’s what we do know that ain’t so!”
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