I work at a hotel in a resort town that is primarily white. There is very little crime here and if there was I am confident that the police would show up and be as helpful as possible. There are people in the USA that do not have that privlege and most of them have darker skin than me. As a biracial person, I find that I am more aware of the violence towards black people than your average "white" person. I have found myself frustrated over the last couple of days when discussing the issues with Ferguson, MO with my coworkers. They keep saying things that are so privleged and accidentally racist. I am sure that they would not think of themselves as racist, but they are exhibiting opinions that are not good. I was just talking to one of my coworkers and he was saying that he didn't think that the police violence against black people was not common. That it didn't happen every day. I tried to explain to him that young black boys have to be taught how to be properly arrested, so that they can survive, because most of them will be arrested in their lifetime. I don't think that he understands how much of this violence goes unreported by the mainstream media. Police shoot at unarmed people all the time. And honestly said unarmed people tend to be black. These people at work are so unaware of the realities of the lives of people of color and specifically black people. I am not saying that, as a light skinned biracial person, I can ever completely understand, because I am afforded a certain amount of privlege due to my skin. The other day one of my coworkers that actually goes to school near Ferguson was telling me about the town and he was saying things about how nice it is in the center of town and that its only the outskirts that were a problem. I am fairly certain that he was saying that only the black people are the problem. He also tried to tell me that the issues in Ferguson were not about race but rather about poverty. I couldn't figure out how to explain to him that poverty is race related in its very nature. The institutions within our country have caused this with their policies and actions. I knew that white men were privleged, but I have never really spent any time with straight white men in their 20s, so I am not quite sure that I knew it was this bad. My one coworker thinks that the reason the police were shooting into the crowd of protesters is that the protesters shot at them first. It's like they have no concept of the historical issues in our country. He just keeps saying that the rioting needs to stop and I agree. The rioting is bad. But I don't think that the protests have to stop until there is some real progress made. I think that actions of the police in Ferguson are ridiculous and they need to stop. I am not saying that police are evil, I am saying that they need to be able to interact with people without wearing riot gear and shooting off tear gas, wooden pellets and rubber bullets. I am saying that if the police shoot somebody they should be immediately investigated. And I am saying that the Ferguson police chief needs to stop giving press conferences. People need to be aware of the fact that we are nowhere near a post-racial society.
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