FERGUSON AND THE RACIAL DIVIDE

            One of the tragic results of the incidents in Ferguson Missouri is that more of the White People of America have turned against African Americans. I am not speaking only of right-wing people who never liked Blacks.  I’m talking about all whites, including White liberals who always thought of themselves as civil rights advocates.

            Black people might say that white liberals never really supported them, and that they never needed the support of white liberals. But they would be very wrong. In a nation where white people are a majority of the population, and where whites represent an overwhelming majority of the political and business power structure, African Americans simply cannot progress and succeed if the white people are hostile to them.

            White liberals have spent many decades fighting for civil rights. Many white liberals went South during the civil rights struggles where they were freedom riders, and where they conducted voter registration drives and other activities in support of civil rights. Now, after the O.J. Simpson case, the Trayvon Martin case, and the Michael Brown fiasco, a large proportion of the white liberals are alienated and disgusted. I would wager that today Blacks have very few friends left among white liberals. I believe that this is a real tragedy for African Americans.

            It is not the dispute about the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown that have alienated the white people. It is the subsequent rioting and looting. White people cannot understand how Blacks can protest the Brown shooting by rioting and looting. It is very upsetting for people who have spent their lives fighting for the rights of Blacks to see them turn this protest into an ugly circus.

            The decline in white liberal support for African American aspirations began with the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994-1995. Whites had greatly admired Simpson for his heroics on the football field and his humorous movie rolls. Nevertheless, when they heard the evidence for Simpson’s murder of his wife and her lover, they were convinced that he was guilty. Whites were astonished to find that Black people did not share this view. Virtually all African Americans wanted Simpson to be acquitted and, despite all of the evidence, insisted that Simpson was innocent. Moreover, even high level Black commentators joined in the collective Black denial of Simpson’s guilt. When Simpson was acquitted by a largely Black jury, the media showed Blacks at an elite collage cheering. Whites had never realized how different Black attitudes were from those of white people.

            Nevertheless, by 2008 the Simpson case had been virtually forgotten and many whites were able to vote for Barack Obama for president. Then came the Trayvon Martin case. When a community watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, shot Martin, whites saw this as a legitimate use of self-defense against a young man who had attacked the Zimmerman. African Americans had a totally different view. They were incensed that a white man would profile and follow a Black youth walking through a private community. Blacks believed that regardless of whether or not Zimmerman shot Martin in self –defense, he should be convicted of murder on account of his racial profiling. Again, as in the O.J. Simpson case, the Black view was adopted by all of the Black commentators. Whites were very disturbed by the fact that Blacks saw something so differently from them.

            The final straw was the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson Missouri. Whites had no shared opinion about the circumstances of Brown’s death, but were horrified that Black people engaged in rioting and looting of stores. Police put forth an explanation of the shooting which Blacks refused to accept. Some people who claimed to be witnesses said that there was no justification for the killing. Whites were alarmed to see that Black people would loot stores in their own community to express their outrage at the killing. Whites pointed out that they never rioted or looted in any similar circumstances.

            Now, as a result of Whites’ disillusion there is a greater racial divide in America than there has been in a long time. Ultimately, this will hurt the fortunes of African Americans. They will find it harder to get jobs, harder to earn money, harder to get into good collages, and harder to get along with the whites who represent the power structure. The disparities that now place Blacks at the bottom of the social scale will be exacerbated and extended.