Ferguson
Events 
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America (Defined as contemporary American society)
Mike Brown is approached by Officer Darren Wilson for walking in the middle of the streets
Mike Brown fits the description of a shoving/ burglary incident earlier that day
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"He looked like a demon" - Officer Darren Wilson
Wilson reports there was a struggle where Brown tried to grab his gun, and then later on charged him
Witness claims that Wilson grabbed Brown by the neck and when Brown fled, he shot
Either way Michael Brown is dead
He was an unarmed, innocent 18 year old and he's dead
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"In other words he was not afforded the status of human" - Ransby
The people of Ferguson want to mourn and it seems the police do anything within their power to stop this
not an elegy for Mike Brown
I am sick of writing this poem
but bring the boy. his new name
his same old body. ordinary, black
dead thing. bring him & we will mourn
until we forget what we are mourning
& isn't that what being black is about?
not the joy of it, but the feeling
you get when you are looking
at your child, turn your head,
then, poof, no more child.
that feeling. that's black.
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think: once, a white girl
was kidnapped & that's the Trojan war.
later, up the block, Troy got shot
& that was Tuesday. are we not worthy
of a city of ash? of 1000 ships
launched because we are missed?
always, something deserves to be burned.
it's never the right thing now a days.
I demand a war to bring the dead boy back
no matter what his name is this time.
I at least demand a song. a song will do just fine.
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look at what the lord has made.
above Missouri, sweet smoke.
Riots breakout
BLM movement is spawned
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James Baldwin's "A Report from an Occupied Territory" tells the stories of black new yorker's and police brutality. His main sentiment is "a plea for the recognition of our common humanity."
Black (Defined as the African American collective experience)
BLM
Black Panthers
Some misunderstandings of the movement:
They do not hate cops
The movement is not just for black people. The movement wants to see a more equal society for all. The black lives matters name infers a too at the end, meaning that all lives matter, black lives have just been at heightned risk and the movement's name serves as reminder
"We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements."
This is from the BLM about us page, and I think it serves to show the inclusiveness of their movement
Is this what being black feels like?
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in her article "Black Lives Matter: A Movement Not a Moment" discusses the lie that we are equal through stats of black employment in low wage jobs, examples of police brutality, and the mentality around Ferguson that the people of this country have had enough.
Citizenship (Defined as the struggle for equality)
Far more radical than BLM. Founded in 1966 they were a "Party for self defense". They fought for things like reparations and equality, also pushing forward ideas like black exemption from military.
Black femininity
The BLM movement is lead by female organizers. This not only makes the focus of BLM a racial focus, but also because of the leadership, they have come to represent black females and black members of the LGBTQ community.
BLM in their NPR interview says they want the movement to be multiracial. They do not serve to divide the country, but bring it together
Obama
Coates writes that it was unfair to expect the Obama presidency to end racism in this country.
Riots
"property damage and looting have been the most effective tools of social progress for white people in America. They describe everything from enslavement to Jim Crow laws to lynching to red-lining."- Coates
Coates goes on to argue that we can't expect nonviolence in Ferguson, as the law there hasn't served to protect the population, but instead the laws have created fear
The article "Eighty Years of Ferguson" parallels today's climate and the one of the Civil Right's Movement. He defends the outburst of violence in Ferguson by blaming police for escalation and providing historical examples, like the riot after the attempted King bombing, and other riots that got results making legislation happen.
"Slavery was so long ago, get over it"
Nicholas Kristoff tackles this argument in his article, "When Whites Just Don't Get It" He discusses how things like redlining and segregation still have prevalent effects today. Even to go as far back as slavery Kristoff says, For example, counties in America that had a higher proportion of slaves in 1860 are still more unequal today, according to a scholarly paper published in 2010. The authors called this a “persistent effect of slavery.”
"While living with the conditions of slavery and then, later, segregation, many Negroes lost faith in themselves. Many came to feel that perhaps they were less than human. Many came to feel that they were inferior. This, it seems to me, is the greatest tragedy of slavery, the greatest tragedy of segregation, not merely what it does to the individual physically, but what it does to one psychologically. It scars the soul of the segregated as well as the segregator. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, while leaving the segregated with a false sense of inferiority. And this is exactly what happened." -Martin Luther King
Micro agressions
The N Word
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"Citizen" is a lyric/ novel that really helped me understand what is meant by micro agression. The book repeatedly puts you into another's shoes in the face of them, and maybe you aren't offended by the first scene, or the second, but as the book goes on your anger builds. I believe this is meant to make people understand how maybe it isn't just one comment, but the build up
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being black because your skin color reflects what you really are in society, being black means that you can not have hands in your pockets, no playing music, no sudden movements, no driving your car, no walking at night, no walking at day, no turning on to the street, no entering this building, no standing your ground, no standing here, no standing there, no talking black, no playing with toy guns and no living while your black.
What both Luther and Rankine wanna get across is the idea of the self fulfilling prophecy. If you treat someone as worthless, eventually they will start to believe it.
WE ALL NEED TO DO BETTER