More than black and white in Ferguson

In the March 2014 issue of Kappan, I wrote about “deconstructing the pyramid of prejudice”. To my anguish, following the tragic shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., my own community of St. Louis became the visible, tragic epicenter of the dynamics I had written about. Having grown up in Los Angeles in the days of the infamous Watts riots, the scene that was broadcast nightly had an eerie and disturbing feeling of familiarity.

Acts at the bottom of the pyramid of prejudice simply go unnoticed — unless you’re the victim.

It is important to keep in mind that the events that unfolded in Ferguson were about more than race and race relations. Reducing the situation to black and white misses many of the hues that color the context. The issue wasn’t just that a white police officer shot an unarmed black man. The issue is broader. It’s about police accountability, about militarization, about cultural separation, about class and opportunity, about failures of government and education, and so much more.