Ferguson to Mount Pleasant
Just a little more than a month ago, Ferguson, MO. experienced violent riots as protesters were faced for the first time with militarized local police brutality.
In response to the protests, Soup and Substance in partnership with CMU student forum SpeakUp and SpeakOut, will hold “Ferguson to Mount Pleasant”. A panel of conversation with students, faculty, staff and members of the local police will be able to discuss all the issues concerning the Ferguson riots.
“The outrage in Ferguson was not just about the killing, but a pattern that now characterizes policing all across the nation. This pattern makes young black men targets of suspicious behavior,” Professor Andrew Blom said. “The community rose up and protested, and it made national headlines once the media caught a glimpse of the militarized local police and violent outbreaks. The staff here at Central recognized that is not just as an issue in Missouri but all across the nation.”
The riots were a result of the shooting and killing of a young black male by an officer in Ferguson, Mo. The incident raised questions about police brutality, racial tensions and economic class. Michael Brown, the man who was shot, was with a friend when officer Darren Wilson shot six times, after Brown raised his arms up as a sign of surrender and said he was unarmed.
Blom,along with several other staff members, saw this as an opportunity to start conversations regarding a topic Americans have a hard time facing: Existing racism in the country.
Stan Shingles, assistant vice president of University Recreation and a panelist for the event, said the issue of racism isn’t continuously talked about because of a lack of awareness, although America prides itself in diversity, it is still very much segregated.
“When we ask ‘Isn’t it better?’ yes, it’s certainly better than it was for my parents in the '50s and for me in the '70s, but it’s still pretty segregated, especially in our urban centers,” Shingles said. “Information is available to educate yourself, there really is no excuse. It's whether you're open minded enough to take advantage of these things. It used to be where all your information was from the school system and your family, that was all you had. You don’t have that excuse anymore.”
The event is aimed to educate not only students, but the community as a whole on issues of not just race, but poverty as well. Sociology and anthropology professor Elizabeth Bradshaw said these issues are being faced everyday, and it needs to be addressed.
“Many communities with high poverty rates don’t have good relationships with the police departments. Many of these issues exist in big cities and are statistically apparent with people of color,” Bradshaw said. “There is also tension between students and police sometimes. Anytime we have the chance to bring them together and have these serious conversations and create communication, we’ll take advantage of that.”
“Ferguson to Mount Pleasant” will address more than just killing of Brown, but also the underlying issue of racial bias in the criminal justice system. Blom said that this is really a set of interconnected problems.
“The thing to recognize is that policing is just one piece of a larger criminal justice system that produces disparities around race," he said. "It's not just that communities of color are often over-policed and under-protected while experiencing higher rates of harassment and brutality. It's the beginning of a cycle in which people are subjected to more pressure from prosecutors to take pleas, or face imbalanced juries, and then encounter upon release persistent suspicion and legalized discrimination.
"This cycle can spell disaster for whole communities. Much of it has been driven by policies in the last few decades related to the so-called War on Drugs.”
The protests that filled the streets of Ferguson also brought awareness to the militarization of local police departments. The 1033 program provides a surplus DoD military equipment to state and local police departments, the program is authorized under the federal law.
“This isn’t something that is just specific to Ferguson,"Bradshaw said This is a larger practice, the shooting of young unarmed black men is becoming a pattern. Police are now responding to protests of this in unnecessary ways. In the case of Ferguson, they came out looking like a military army. There were protective vehicles, tear gas and images were then created of how militarized the police has really become.”
When combining race and poverty, the equation pans out to the repetition of violence among urban areas and the increased incarceration of people of color. The issue of race in the criminal justice system is nothing new in any community – Shingles said that the system has now become an industry.
“Lets understand it for what it is, when you have as many individuals of color being incarcerated then you do trying to aid the issue, were building these institutions of prisons not institutions to further education," he said. "We need to invest in the right thing, so I really think it starts there. We know people of color are being incarcerated at a much higher rate. There is a hue to these issues and that is a hue of color. At the end of the day someone has to pay and statistics don’t lie, it’s more likely to be a young black man.”
Protests in Ferguson have gone down and the media is not as apparent with covering the case. However, Blom said this is a topic that will not disappear and will need future and continuous awareness.
“This is the first time we’ve done a joint forum with Soup and Substances, but I think that our missions and purposes are very similar, we want people to be informed and have have content of meaningful dialogue,” Blom said. “The issues concerning race won’t go away after the conversation of Ferguson fizzles out, we will continue to talk about this and deal with this for a very long time.”
“Ferguson to Mount Pleasant” will take place 12-1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23 in the Bovee University Center Rotunda.
