How many Fergusons are out there? by Dr. Gregg Mast

September 1, 2014

It was ten days ago that 18 year old, unarmed Michael Brown was shot six times on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. The community, to say nothing of the nation, has seethed with anger ever since. To be sure, there have been some who have used this tragedy for looting and lawlessness in the darkness of the night. But there are many others who wonder which of their children could be next and they march for justice.

Allow me to move our focus to ten days before the shooting. What in Ferguson made it so ready to explode? If our Anti-Racism commitment at New Brunswick Seminary has meant anything, it has taught us to ask who is in the room when power is exercised, all too often to increase the privilege of some and to further disadvantage others. In a predominantly African American community on the edges of St. Louis, the police ranks are dominantly white and all too often filled with those who commute to work rather living in the community they are sworn to protect. The political power, while indigenous, is also dominantly white. And so who is in the room when important decisions are made?

The tragedy of Ferguson and Michael Brown is that they continue to represent the sins of our past rather than the hope of our future. While there are a naïve few who have suggested that with an African American President, racism has been banished. I wish it were so! But we know that racism, the deepest wound on the American soul, has a long way to go before it is healed. Until racism is actively confronted and defeated, there will be far too many places like Ferguson, and far too many young people like Michael Brown, who will pay the price for our passivity.