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Ferguson's Despair and the Devastation of White Privilege
The Huffington Post's The Blog ^ | November 30, 2014 | Heather Ann Thompson

Posted on 11/30/2014 9:21:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

All day people gathered, waiting, daring to hope, that maybe this time black lives would matter. Minutes passed. Then hours. And, as darkness descended on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, the now enormous crowd continued to wait patiently -- trying its best to remain optimistic. Perhaps, despite so many decades of history, black people really could find justice in the American legal system.

That such a faith still flickered was, itself, remarkable. Everyone standing outside of the Ferguson police station awaiting news on whether the grand jury would indict police officer Darren Wilson well remembered what happened on February 26, 2012 when Trayvon Martin was killed. Nothing. They also had noticed that, though Martin's killer went free, in the very same state, black mother Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison merely for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband. And, of course, they had just heard, only two days earlier, that yet another black child, this time 12-year-old Tamir Rice, had also been shot to death by the police.

But having faith and clinging to hope is what it means to be human. Even when the past, as well as most recent present, tell people that optimism is wholly unfounded and that they should be realists not romantics, somehow they still believe.

And then they don't....

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Local News; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: blacks; darrenwilson; ferguson; michaelbrown; racism; trayvon; whiteprivilege; whites; zimmerman
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Heather Ann Thompson is a historian writing on the history, politics, and current impact of incarceration in America.

1 posted on 11/30/2014 9:21:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Dr. Heather Ann Thompson is a native Detroiter currently on faculty in the Departments of African American Studies and History at Temple University. In 2015 she will be joining the faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Thompson has just completed the first comprehensive history of the Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971 and its legacy for Pantheon Books. This book is slated for a 2015 release.

2 posted on 11/30/2014 9:24:19 PM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet







3 posted on 11/30/2014 9:28:16 PM PST by Dallas59
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ugly white liberal: it didn’t matter that the crowd was waiting for an innocent man to be condemned. To the ugly white chick, Wilson was already guilty of white privilege.


4 posted on 11/30/2014 9:28:44 PM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Someone please have this left-winged dingbat read the court testimony and quit making excuses for a cheap crook and thug.


5 posted on 11/30/2014 9:28:53 PM PST by econjack (I'm not bossy...I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"And, as darkness descended on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, the now enormous crowd continued to wait patiently -- trying its best to remain optimistic."

A bloodthirsty crowd of savages wanting to lynch an innocent man for the high capital crime of defending himself against a gargantuan charging thug.

6 posted on 11/30/2014 9:29:07 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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Guilty Of Inciting Racial Hatred By Lying


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Support FR And The Truth

7 posted on 11/30/2014 9:30:51 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: econjack

Doesn’t fit the narrative. She trotted out Saint Skittles of Purple Drank, too. Another big thug caught in the midst of murdering Mr. Zimmerman.


8 posted on 11/30/2014 9:31:39 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: DJ MacWoW
B T T T ! ! ! ©

9 posted on 11/30/2014 9:31:54 PM PST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

because there’s no better explanation for arson at the toys-r-us than white privilege.


10 posted on 11/30/2014 9:35:00 PM PST by barmag25 (There is nothing that a man needs that he can't find in the North Georgia mountains.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pukeville.


11 posted on 11/30/2014 9:35:50 PM PST by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

One of my favorite magazine columnists as a youth was askedby a non-fan: “How can you sit there and write all that crap?” and he replied “On a Royal portable”. Today, Heather Ann Thompson would probably have to reply “On an MacBook Air”....


12 posted on 11/30/2014 9:39:43 PM PST by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I truly despise self haters like her.


13 posted on 11/30/2014 9:40:25 PM PST by aquila48
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fact free blather remains unpersuasive to all but the already indoctrinated.


14 posted on 11/30/2014 9:40:29 PM PST by John Valentine (Deep in the Heart of Texas)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Red diaper doper baby spewing baffle gab


15 posted on 11/30/2014 9:41:42 PM PST by Nifster
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

More proof that any idiot can be a “doctor” these days. What a joke.


16 posted on 11/30/2014 9:43:29 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Remember! When the GOP wins, it means the stupid American voters want bipartisanship.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

White privilege occurs when black people are not allowed to lynch a white person.


17 posted on 11/30/2014 10:09:21 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pass me the kleenex


18 posted on 11/30/2014 10:14:22 PM PST by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S./CDC=Contagion Distribution Center)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Evil White people like her are doing more to hurt race relations than anyone else - they present a false narrative and the hope for an unreal and false outcome. She creates anger in both sides of the debate!


19 posted on 11/30/2014 10:33:20 PM PST by melsec (There's a track, winding back, to an old forgotten shack along the road to Gundagai..)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Umm, whats not understandable in the findings of the Grand Jury???

Was the report written in cursive?

20 posted on 11/30/2014 11:05:46 PM PST by broken_clock (Do it Sarah! Cut the ties that bind.)
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