with Janee Woods
It is a matter of color. Photo credit: Reuters/Adrees Latif
As outrage over the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri further develops—around police brutality, First Amendment rights, and memories of a Civil Rights-era America—one primary criticism is that this isn’t a race issue. Some people believe that Michael Brown wasn’t killed by officer Darren Wilson because he was black and that the militarized police actions toward the predominant African American community didn’t happen because the police force is almost all white.
Rather, some people say that the issues at play are class and poverty, or police brutality more generally. They don’t see race as the epicenter of the killing and subsequent fallout because we don’t yet know all the facts. They seem to believe we live in a post-racial society now that we’ve enthusiastically elected a black president (twice!), most overt racism is banned by law, and the police are supposed to be trained to serve and protect all people, regardless of color. They say there’s a chance that race wasn’t a factor, so why are people looking to race first and pointing a finger at racism? This criticism reflects a growing sentiment that we should be colorblind and never see the color of a person’s skin but only the content of his character.