Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Open Letter To St. Louis County Prosecutor in Ferguson

Dear St. Louis County Prosecutor in Ferguson,

I feel as though you waited until evening (8:24pm) to announce the outcome knowing that it would incite a riot so that you could make this about our rage and not about your murder. I am sure you planned this and that you will do nothing to help rebuild the communities but you will continue to fuel this rage with images of us looting and burning and soundbites of our religious leaders and crying mothers as you ask for their response to news that you knew would break their hearts. You got your reaction shots and now you will pimp out images of us at our worst so the world outside of us will think this is who we are. This is how you will justify needing military weapons to "protect and serve". Tell us what to do to change your hearts about us? Tell us how to act to make us appear human to you? What clothes should we wear, what hairstyle? What vernacular should we speak? Tell us what to do so that you will not be afraid of our mere presence? Tell us where to live so that you will not hunt our young boys like wild game. Who will serve US? Who will protect US? Our screams, our anger seem to be lost in translation. We don't understand what it is you don't understand. So tell us. What do we need to do? It's been 400 years and we are simply out of options.

MDW