NOT A TIME FOR RANT…

…but a time for slow, deliberate reflection around the reality that our America is a collection of cultures… not just one.  There is no such thing as  “The American culture” and “The American Way of Life.” Those descriptives didn’t work in the past, and they certainly don’t work now.  Politicians are fools or charlatans who speak reverently of America in terms of one culture or one way of life which they say they are committed to preserving. America is obviously a collection of cultures, perhaps overall as diverse and widely dispersed as in any other nation on earth.

American cultures are coded and ranked by color.  The anguish of Ferguson is an American tragedy which has its roots in cultural communities where the primary assumption is that white people are the first and most important Americans.  Anyone who dismisses looting and burning of businesses in Ferguson as being the work of black thugs is failing to understand what happened there and why it happened… and why it will continue to happen until white people in cities and towns learn to accept responsibility for provoking rage in citizens of color by denigrating them in systems of education, law enforcement, and government. 

To express solidarity and support for the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri, early this evening I participated with my friends Maggie and Jada in a rally behind the City Heights library in San Diego.  The large orderly crowd of all ages and colors spoke, chanted, and moved taking care not to disrupt or damage the community.  Police officers consistently showed polite respect for individuals and groups.  

I walked Maggie and Jada to their car and then went back to my car to go home; and as I was driving away from the area, some of the people who had been in the rally behind the library poured onto the street and headed in the direction of University Avenue.  Later when I got home, I learned from a TV report that the group had marched west on University and tried to block traffic on Interstate 15.  Ah, well.  What can I say?