Ferguson Won T Heal Analysis

Superior Essays
In Sarah 's Kendzior 's article, "Ferguson Won 't Heal", she explores St. Louis ' history and contrasts it with it’s present, comparing the bitterness of race riots and the Michael Brown Shooting with the sweetness of cakes that pepper the privileged areas of the city. Kendzior 's article compares Darren Wilson 's administrative leave and the article of "The Grand Jury Says no Now St. Louis make the most of it" with the rubbing of salt in a wound; Ferguson 's explosive history combined with its inability to recognize sour race relations created a conversation on August 9th, one that ended in a death, and people still being blind to this ongoing conversation. Ferguson isn’t an anomaly or tragic event in the long history of Saint Louis, but …show more content…
Saint Louis although “it was proclaimed a “future great city of the world”” (Kendizor) suffers greatly from poor government leadership. The city is split into many municipalities which brings difficulty into controlling areas but ease in escaping blame, i.e. Michael Brown’s death. There is a continuing trend of different branches of the government placing blame amongst one another with no action taken to solve the preexisting problem. The Riots in Ferguson were the result of the wound being depended with the shooting of Michael Brown, he was one of many, he just happened to garner the national spotlight and bring attention to the city’s sordid past and it’s continuing “run around” practices “Michael Brown is dead, Darren Wilson is rich, and the streets he patrolled lie in ruins. This is not healing but salt in the wound” (Kendizor) The words healing and wound are often used to describe the Ferguson situation. Often times people claim to the citizens that despite the unjust ruling, despite the way the case was handled that “The grand jury says no. Now St. Louis must make the most of it.” There is no conversation rather a declaration because the willingness to listen is nonexistent. The problem cannot be fixed if people choose to believe that it doesn’t exist. The author of the article poses the question “How does one heal when those who wound walk free, aided and abetted by the power …show more content…
This conversation isn’t a conversation though, “The conversation on race is whispered between panicked mothers on the playground, shouted by racists in the night, chanted by protesters on the street. The conversation on race happens every time white families explain they are moving out of a black neighborhood because “it’s different when it’s your own kids,” There is a a continuous unspoken conversation. Actions speak louder than words is the common denominator within not only Ferguson and Saint Louis but nationwide. Kendizor makes a valiant point about the problem of discussing race relations in Saint Louis, “St. Louis has been having a conversation on race since its foundation. The "conversation on race" that has not happened is the one in which white people listen to black people discuss their own experiences—and believe them. It is not about respectability. It is about respect.” The biggest problem that exists within the conversation on race is not that it isn’t being had but it is not being had the right way, there is no dialogue because one party is failing the listen to the other and as a result, there is another Florida, Ferguson, New York, North Carolina and Baltimore in the national headlines every other

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