:-/

In response to a few posts published earlier, I'd like to present my abbreviated opinion of interracial crime and its importance in the media.

I don't want to discredit anyone's ideas or opinions by saying this, but I've always found it difficult to talk about race and white supremacy in a room full of white people. I remember last year when my English class took an online assessment to see if we had any racial preference towards whites/blacks (not to be confused, as it most commonly was, with actually being racist; this test was merely assessing our somewhat-subconscious racial preferences). It was not surprising that a majority of the class (including a few black students) tested for strong preferences towards white people.

Many questioned the credibility of the assessment to make such "preposterous" claims, however that can be discussed on a different day. I'm merely trying to point out that American culture favors the white man. It has for centuries and it shouldn't be a surprise. Society still struggles to find real social and economic equality among whites and blacks due to the repercussions of the past few centuries.

I cannot argue that Michael Brown was entirely innocent, but I can point out that it's all too common for a police officer to be notified of a crime (in this case a robbery, although it is still uncertain as to whether the officer knew of Brown's robbery or not prior to Brown's death) and immediately suspect the black man over anyone else. It has happened too often to be false, and if you think that the case we have on our hands is completely uncorrelated to race, then you're probably the reason why I find it difficult to take about race and white supremacy when I'm the only nonwhite in a classroom. Of course Michael Brown's death had to do with race. Of course Trayvon Martin's death had to do with race. Faulkner made it all too obvious that Christmas became a person of interest only when race was involved, and times really have not changed much since then. Yes, certain stories are blown up when interracial conflicts come into play, but that is because they say something about American culture. It says something about who gets to be an "American hero" and who has to walk the streets and feel like an outsider.

I guess this wasn't as "abbreviated" as I had planned it to be (although I could honestly go on and on about this topic) and I hope I haven't offended anyone by this post. I'm not trying to argue that everyone isn't entitled to their opinion or that anyone is uneducated about certain aspects of race and American culture, I'm just trying to bring in a perspective that I can bet is not often taken into consideration because of where we live and who we interact with.