We are almost 10 days into the Siege at Ferguson.  Not a military action, thousands of miles away, but an overzealous law enforcement response to protests waged in the wake of an unjustified police shooting in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. While watching the coverage, and reading many of the articles and blog posts that have been written in the wake of this latest tragedy, numerous people have mentioned the continued efforts to dehumanize the victim of the shooting, while demonizing the protesters.  The media tactic has been around as long as newspapers have been in print, if not longer, and all those who have called the news media out on this shameful habit were obviously correct in doing so.  They are missing one crucial fact, however.

In order to be dehumanized, we have to be seen as human.

Like so many things in America, the routine dehumanization of Blacks can be traced to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The entire southern economy was built on and depended on the free labor of those captured or sold into slavery in Africa , then transported to these shores for sale.  In order to justify the highly profitable, but morally reprehensible, practice of chattel slavery, as practiced in the U.S., the argument had to be made and emphasized that these were not people, but things.  No more than animals to be worked until they died, then you could either by more, or worse, breed them.  Even in the Census, slaves were only counted as 3/5 of a person.  That this point of view existed for at least 200 years prior to the end of slavery, is very telling about how attitudes towards all minorities, not just Blacks, developed over time as the nation grew.

After the slaves were freed, when most Blacks were just trying to live peacefully and support their families, the Ku Klux Klan formed.  Although, if you look carefully enough, their services weren't really needed.  After 200 years of being conditioned to believe that an entire race of people were all mostly lazy, ignorant, or animalistic, those in positions of power: the bankers, landowners and politicians, had no interest in creating a fair and just society were all men could propel themselves up the socioeconomic ladder by their own hard work.  There is no profit in that, for them anyway, so we have the invention of the system of sharecropping, a system meant to keep Blacks as close to a condition of slavery as possible, while also managing to sweep in the rural poor as well. It was during this era that we also saw the beginnings of the "Us vs Them" style of politics, which used the by now widely believed stereotypes of Blacks to scare poor Whites into believing that the Blacks were out to take away their livelihoods (rather than just trying to live independently), and/or commit some heinous crime against them.  American has always had a need for a "villain" (in order for someone to be declared a "hero"), and due to the fact that Blacks are highly visible, all that is needed to keep the population in fear of a certain group is to find someone who fits the definition of what they are afraid of, and parade that person out front, as often and as loudly as possible, drowning out the fact that the vast majority of the population is not only nothing like this person, but probably has more in common with the person being fed fear then they realize.  The purpose of the KKK was two-fold: to keep Blacks "in their place", which meant not doing well enough for themselves that they saw themselves as equal to the whites of the time (the phrase "Uppity Nigger" was coined during this time); and to control the remainder of the population through feeding into their fear of the "Other", thus allowing those in power to stay in power.

Just underneath the surface, although slavery ended 149 years ago, the lingering notion that Blacks (and other minorities) aren't really human, hangs heavy in the air over any media coverage of events surrounding largely minority communities.  Therein lies the rush to portray them in as negative a light as possible, especially when their death at the hands of an authority figure is in question.  Which leaves the parents, relatives and friends to tell the story of a complex life, rather than the caricature the law enforcement community needs you to believe in order to justify their actions.  They have to feed the fear.  Do not think there is not an economic component to this in these days, just as there was back then.  Now, those that benefit from media reinforced fear of the "Other", are not just the bankers, landowners and politicians (who sell fear as a means of staying in office), but the Military, Law Enforcement agencies (it is called the Prison Industrial Complex for a reason), home security companies and gun manufacturers all receive massive budgets, and huge profits, from selling seeming safety from the mysterious "Other".  The "Other" who in reality is more like them than they realize, if they would only see beyond what they are told to believe.

All races of people have people within that race that are criminals, fools and ne'er do wells.  The multi-award winning TV show Breaking Bad, and the much discussed show Sons of Anarchy, show that the drug trade and gang violence are not limited to urban minorities, concentrated in inner cities.  Rural America has it's fair share of issues, but those that live there are largely given the benefit of the doubt (or they used to be) in interaction with law enforcement and subsequent treatment by the media.  For Blacks and other minorities, the lowest common denominator is the default by which they are measured. Always. Minorities often have to go far above and beyond in order for the world to know that our loved ones and friends were not the "Thugs" (code word for all minorities) that they are being portrayed as.  The ultimate scenario of Guilty Until Proven Innocent, is what they have all come to expect.  Which, 149 years after the end of slavery, is a shame.

When William Shakespeare gave that speech to Shylock during the court trial in The Merchant of Venice, he was making a comment about the view of Jews in Elizabethan society during the late 1500's.  What does it say about us as a technologically advanced, presumably First-World country when we still have to ask those same questions in 2014 in a mid-western suburb?  If all you know about an entire group of people is what you've been fed in the media, and maybe had one or two interactions with a few representatives, how much do you really know, especially if you are going to continue spreading the lies, fear and hate?

My son is 21.  He is already a veteran of being stopped for no other reason than "because", and was taught early on to be polite and respectful to law enforcement, no matter how they may be treating him.  He is funny and charming, but he can also be temperamental and easily upset if he feels that he is being treated unfairly.  He is by no means a perfect person, but neither is he some sort of always to be feared "Other", and like most parents of imperfect Black males, this is what I worry about most.  Having to defend my son should one day, propelled by fear, paranoia, and 350 years of being repeatedly told that my son is not a real person, some law enforcement officer will misread a harmless word or gesture, then completely overreact, thereby turning my son into another heartbreaking statistic.  Which they would then try to justify by bringing up the fact that he wasn't a great student, and whatever else they can think of, dig up or make up.  Which would leave those of us that loved him in the position of trying to remind the world that this wasn't some animal; this was a son, brother, nephew and friend, that was wonderfully human, flaws and all.

We all are.  Now if we could only realize that and treat each other accordingly.

Addendum on 12/1/14: I am re-posting this today, instead of another post I was writing, because this subject seems even more important today, in the wake of the Grand Jury verdict, than it did when I first posted it 3 1/2 months ago.  I truly believe that our historical inability to be perceived as human beings is slowly beginning to tear away at something deep in the fabric of American society, and if we don't stop this dehumanizing of the minority population, we are setting ourselves for a societal failure that we will not be able to handle or contain.

I was born on a cool, Fall Saturday morning in 1971.

That might explain why Saturday mornings are my favorite times during the week.  It's often quiet in my house, which gives me time for prayer, devotion and reflection.  Creaking bones and sore hips and knees when I rolled out of bed one such Saturday morning, reminded me that I had driven almost 200 miles the day before, both in the course of work, and transporting a group of kids from an amusement park.  Clearly, I am not the long driving road warrior I used to be.  Time passes quickly.

I remember being a small child, running through the house, chasing my older sister.  I got my first lesson in watching where I was going when I caught a doorknob in the eye from a door my sister suddenly closed during the chase.  Mostly I remember those days as ones of tireless exploration, even if we could never wander far from the house (we were not allowed to wander anywhere our mother couldn't see us from any window in whatever house or apartment we lived in).  We always made our own adventures, playing out whatever stories we had scene enacted on our favorite cartoons, or we had read in a book earlier that week.

I remember elementary school as a time of expanding boundaries, frequent moves and learning the art of making friends quickly.  We changed schools multiple times during those years, and I rapidly figured out that if I didn't want to spend a lot of time alone, learning to read kids and seek out those willing to be friendly was going to have to become an art form I needed to master, the sooner the better for each change of location.  During that time I developed the ability to talk to anybody, at any time, about any subject you can think of or make up.  I also learned that carefully placed silences can be as comforting as conversation, and becoming a good listener is a talent few people really cultivate.  Being a constant outsider had it's advantages

Middle and High School brought some level of stability, as I was able to start and finish at the same schools, and I learned that relationships could be sustained over longer periods of time.  Here I was told that it was time to start planning my future.  Of the many iterations of What I Want To Be When I Grow Up that passed through my mind (and out of my mouth), the final two I settled on were actress or journalist.  I left high school, that became Actress (despite my crippling stage fright), Director, Producer and Writer.  I drifted far away from these goals as early motherhood became my reality, and all dreams artsy drifted into the frenzied background of a life spent in the constant care of and attention to first one, then two children. False starts, seminars, weekend classes, and eventually a sideline into IT later, all that remained was my desire to write.

I look back over my life in the 20+ years since the State of California legally declared me an adult, and I see not only a world that's changed, but a person that has had to learn and adapt to whatever the world threw at her.  Jobs, found and lost.  Frequent changes of residence.  The ups and downs of relationships.  New technology, both necessary and extraneous.  With all of these things, what I sincerely hope, is that I have learned things that will help me with my own children.  I truly believe that you learn to parent by remembering your life as a child, so that you can reference every stage they experience balanced against your own life.  We are not authoritarian strangers who don't understand what it's like to be young.  We've been where they've been, and once our children realize that we might just actually "get" them, without condemnation or condescension, we might finally find them listening to our offered wisdom and warnings.

It's not for the faint of heart, this business of shaping new adults.  Time transforms us all, from infant to child to teen to adult, with all of the lessons learned and wisdom earned along the way.  It's our job to remember, and pass what we know and all that we've learned on to the younger ones, enabling the next generation to build on whatever we started while innovating their approach.  This is how successful societies are built and sustained, and the one thing I hope will continue into the future.

In 10-15 years (Knock Wood!), I will likely add grandparent to my list of titles.  By then I will have had even more experiences to add to the education I'll be passing on to my own children.  And will be able to start anew passing on the stories, lessons and wisdom of my childhood years on to my next generation.  As I should.