A Civil Discourse: Wash U Hosts Panel in Response to Michael Brown Shooting
BY BILLIE MANDELBAUM
In his 1953 novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, James Baldwin wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Rebecca Wanzo, an associate professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, referenced this same quote in her introduction to the university’s August 28 panel discussion, “Race, Place, and Violence: A University-Wide Dialogue about Michael Brown.” The quote set the tone for the panel—an insightful and powerful discussion that confronted the sensitive issues of race and discrimination in a frank manner. Convened by Wanzo and Jeffrey McCune, an associate professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and in the Performing Arts Department, the panel was one of the first of several university-wide events planned to address the shooting of Michael Brown.
Although the unrest in Ferguson has received ample news coverage since Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer on August 9, I’ve found much of the discourse surrounding the shooting to be either unremarkable or incredibly divisive. The media’s talking head pundits can be categorized between two extremes: those afraid to actually talk about racism due to misconstrued notions of political correctness and conservative media personalities who purposively deny the persistence of racism and instead choose to scrutinize Brown’s “character.” For this reason it was refreshing to hear from speakers who were not afraid to, as Baldwin prescribed, “face” the issues—racism, discrimination, healthcare disparities, educational inequality, police brutality—that surround what happened in Ferguson. Moreover, panelists reiterated a fact that has been overlooked by many—what happened in Ferguson isn’t an anomaly, but rather the newest addition to the narrative of racism and black-white power structures in America.
“This is a fresh cut in a very old wound,” panelist Justin Hansford, an assistant professor of law at St. Louis University said. Hansford mentioned that the panel coincided with the 69th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till, a killing that as Hansford discussed provides the most “apt analogy” in the context of Brown’s murder. Both were teenaged blacks, killed by white men.
While Brown’s killing awakens the old wounds of Till’s murder it also bears much resemblance to more recent killings of unarmed black men. Panelist Brittany Packnett, the executive director of Teach For America-St. Louis and a Wash U alumnus, touched upon these recent events by surveying the standing-room only audience.
“Raise your hand and keep it raise if you are from or have ever lived in the following places: Ohio, California, New York, St. Louis,” she said. “Now raise your other hand and keep it raised.” Nearly every audience member, including myself, had a hand raised.
She paused and looked around the auditorium before continuing. “Ezell Ford, John Crawford III, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and Dante Parker. All African-American men from places where you have lived. All five of them died at the hands of law enforcement in the last month. And like everyone with both hands up, none of them were brandishing a weapon.”
Packnett’s hand raising exercise was one of the panel’s most powerful moments and illustrated the need to look beyond what happened in Ferguson. I had heard about Eric Garner, but the other names held little significance to me. This is perhaps due to the media’s sensationalistic coverage of the mass protests and rioting that ensued following Brown’s death. As one Ferguson resident said in an August 18 interview with the New York Times, “If it wasn’t for the looting we wouldn’t get the attention.” The media latched on to the rioting, which according to Packnett was very limited.
In the dialogue’s conclusion, panelists discussed the next steps to productively move forward in the wake of Brown’s death. Many panelists mentioned the need to have more intergroup contact between whites and blacks, something that Wash U students could achieve by going out into the larger St. Louis community and meeting people of different backgrounds and races. However, as Packnett mentioned those involved in such endeavors need to be genuinely engaged in what they are undertaking.
“If you are doing any of this stuff… and you’re doing it to look good, stop. That’s not helping anybody and it’s most of all not helping you,” she said.
While Packnett’s words were not directed at the university’s administration, I think the university would do well to heed similar advice. With multiple photographers incessantly snapping pictures throughout the panel, and a new social media campaign “#WashUVoices” it seems that the university might be framing its response to Ferguson in a way that elevates itself as a diverse, and socially aware institution. Despite my reservations, I think the university hosted a great panel. I walked away from the discussion with a deeper knowledge of not just what happened in Ferguson, but also a better understanding of the pervasiveness of racism in our society. However, I hope as Ferguson fades from the headlines, that the university continues to host programs that foster such meaningful conversations.