{"id":1725,"date":"2014-08-24T16:08:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T20:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daughtersofeve\/?p=1725"},"modified":"2014-08-26T01:00:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T05:00:30","slug":"ferguson-mo-by-clio-ajana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daughtersofeve\/2014\/08\/ferguson-mo-by-clio-ajana\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson, MO by Clio Ajana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"(AP<\/a>
(AP Photo\/Jeff Roberson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A friend calls<\/span><\/p>\n

White, blond, Iowa bred<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Can I ask you something political?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

She tells how her\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

sister-in-law-to-be posts<\/span><\/p>\n

a picture on Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe does not understand how one shooting<\/span><\/p>\n

causes riots. She calls me \u201cliberal\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What do I say? How do I get her to understand?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

The pause is ache.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know from college that to shop<\/span><\/p>\n

while black, to drive while black,<\/span><\/p>\n

to live while black is hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do I say? I am so angry with her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

\n<\/p>

The silence covers the years of no\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

conversations on race.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A nation inflamed \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hands up, don\u2019t shoot\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

erupts like a pimple that ached for weeks<\/span><\/p>\n

on the tender skin that is the American soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t talk about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We cover it over with accomplishments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

We are post-racial\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(Thanks to a black President\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

who is really bi-racial for those who care and black for those who don\u2019t.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, upstate New York conservatives don\u2019t\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

get why one shooting\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

brings out what brown skinned folks have known\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

for years:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Life while black\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

from birth to death.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are one of two nations with race on the birth certificate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marked from the womb to the tomb<\/span><\/p>\n

You are black whether rich or poor.<\/span><\/p>\n

The darker the skin, the more easily marked<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet light skin does not help<\/span><\/p>\n

When the cop stops you for driving a\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

car that is \u201ctoo good\u201d for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

\u201cHow I got over\u201d \u2013 Clara Ward<\/span><\/p>\n

knew this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three women in a Cadillac in Georgia<\/span><\/p>\n

White men who didn\u2019t like it<\/span><\/p>\n

Fake possession to avoid<\/span><\/p>\n

the lynching, killing, robbing<\/span><\/p>\n

of what was theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Oprah knew this<\/span><\/p>\n

from Swiss sellers\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

who thought she could not afford<\/span><\/p>\n

the bag, maybe $10,000<\/span><\/p>\n

A worldwide phenom billionaire<\/span><\/p>\n

with smooth mocha skin<\/span><\/p>\n

supporting her sister Tina\u2019s wedding<\/span><\/p>\n

shut out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apologies don\u2019t cover<\/span><\/p>\n

the race realty for living while black.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

No one mentions how media\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

makes living black hard,<\/span><\/p>\n

even among other brown skins that are black<\/span><\/p>\n

but not born in America.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

I tell my friend this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She knows she has privilege,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

that no one will follow her out of fear,<\/span><\/p>\n

but only out of lust or desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

She has a kind heart and empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

It is a hard conversation to have at 9:30 in the morning<\/span><\/p>\n

when you been up every 90 minutes since 3am<\/span><\/p>\n

and sleep has granted you reprieve for another 85 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

before the phone rings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

How to convey a lifetime of blackness<\/span><\/p>\n

in twenty minutes before she has to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to say \u2013 give your sister-in-law-to-be Peggy McIntosh,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

tell her to read W.E.B. Dubois,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the story of Matthew Perry,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Benjamin Baneker, Madame CJ Walker,<\/span><\/p>\n

knowing that until she has lived as black<\/span><\/p>\n

she can never know the true depths of\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

why Ferguson was not a wake up call<\/span><\/p>\n

but a reminder of what we fear most:<\/span><\/p>\n

walking down the street unarmed<\/span><\/p>\n

and being killed outright for who we are<\/span><\/p>\n

not what we have done.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

We know that if Michael Brown were white<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cunrest\u201d would be short<\/span><\/p>\n

Darren Wilson would have been named in the first 12 hours<\/span><\/p>\n

arrested<\/span><\/p>\n

charged<\/span><\/p>\n

exposed as killer<\/span><\/p>\n

Not revered as a hero in hiding<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook posts asking for protection of his family<\/span><\/p>\n

as though he is a victim.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

We know that if Darren Wilson was black<\/span><\/p>\n

someone would have taken care of him<\/span><\/p>\n

and his family<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

and the media would say nothing<\/span><\/p>\n

the law would do little<\/span><\/p>\n

and upstate New York sister-in-law-to-be would say\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

justice has been served.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

\n<\/p>

\n<\/p>

\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend calls: White, blond, Iowa bred. \u2018Can I ask you something political?\u2019 She tells how her sister-in-law-to-be posts a picture on Facebook. \u201cShe does not understand how one shooting causes riots. She calls me ‘liberal.’ What do I say? How do I get her to understand?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":1726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nFerguson, MO by Clio Ajana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A friend calls: White, blond, Iowa bred. \u2018Can I ask you something political?\u2019 She tells how her sister-in-law-to-be posts a picture on Facebook. \u201cShe does not understand how one shooting causes riots. She calls me 'liberal.' 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