Listening While White
November 25, 2014
Sorrow and Rage Over Ferguson
Listening While White
by ELISA SALASIN
My family sat around the dinner table Monday night, waiting and listening for the grand jury decision on whether Officer Darren Wilson would be indicted in the shooting death, the murder, of Michael Brown. We listened as Prosecutor Robert McCulloch began his statement, and we listened as he went on and on, outlining the supposed impartial process that led the jury of nine White people and three Black people to conclude that no criminal charges would be brought against Officer Wilson.
As I sat there listening to McCullochs statement with his careful, so-called rational, and seemingly thorough detailing of the grand jurys process, I found myself pulled into a part of my brain, a part of my system, a part that Id like to deny still exists but that nonetheless kicked into action in response to the measured analysis on the radio it was the part of me that was Listening While White. And of that crime I was nearly guilty.
As a White woman, raised in a White neighborhood with mostly White schools, educated in White institutions of higher learning, with essentially a White degree, I found that it was all too easy for me to be lulled into complacence and almost-but-not-really acceptance of McCullochs words. It was a language I know, one that was instilled in my childhood, in my schools, and the culture that made me. It was the language of whiteness, and even after many years of conscious work to undo that programming, I found myself nearly drawn into that space and discourse that, as much as Id like to deny it, remains a part of me.
What do I mean by the language of whiteness? Here are words from just the first ten minutes of McCullochs statement: unprecedented cooperation between local and federal authorities, follow the facts, all available evidence to make an informed decision, all evidence shared, evidence presented in an organized and orderly manner, grand jury worked tirelessly, 25 separate days, 70 hours, 60 witnesses, hours and hours of recordings, experts on blood, DNA, toxicology, firearms, drug analysis, examined hundreds of photographs, instructed on the law, exhaustive review, full, impartial, and critical examination of all the evidence in the law
the accurate and tragic story of what happened.
This language of supposed impartiality, neutrality and apparent reason was deftly juxtaposed with the language of random gunfire, unfounded concern, non-stop rumors, witnesses making inconsistent statements, underlying tension, speculation, and fiction.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/25/listening-while-white/
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)A prosecutor is supposed to present the case against the suspect.
That the prosecutor stepped into the shoes of the defense is enough to taint the process from the start.
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)I do not know if they have the power to do that but clearly justice cannot be served in that county as long as he is in charge
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)mcculloch showed no respect coming out late. he had a smirk before he said his first word, and he seemed lit up and almost celebratory. no way -- my "creep" radar was at full tilt. there was no way he was finding any kind of "I'm-white-you're-white" wavelength with me or anyone i know.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)it's too WHITE.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)but, maybe not. But, it seems to me he was speaking to the middle class and rich whites with that language. Because my hillbilly he's speaking bullshit meter was going off full tilt.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)and everyone else is a secondary "minority" (which in turn has only being not-white in common); this is all in spite of the fact that suburbia hasn't been whites-only for decades now, and isn't even "whitebread" in culture (heck, it started as a New Deal-tied autopia rooted in Fordism and designed expressly for for steel puddlers, immigrants, and the masses who'd come together and fought fascism on two fronts)
the "language of whiteness" is the assumption that whiteness is primary--from elementary school up to the White House; whiteness even *has* to be primary--the Irish and Italians got absorbed once there were enough of them; in the 10s and 20s there'll be enough red-blonde/light-skinned Latinos to get sucked into "whiteness" in the sense of a visual category, and enough conservatives to keep the GOP going (though I feel a Mel Zelaya-level reshuffle is on its way in our party system)
(but I am curious what the "whitest" degree could be? English with a minor in Movement? XD on edit: Education at Berkeley--I was close)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)I'm whiter than McCulloch, and my Dad was born in Glasgow. He was my Dad, but he was racist to the core.
There were no black people and one latino in that HS. There was a pejorative name for everybody, even non-protestantism was questionable. If you were not a WASP, you were not as good. I remember an "inner city outreach group" my church held one time with some black kids from downtown. What I remember most was how befuddled we all were with each other (though that was mostly me, I think now.)
This looked like pure old-style Jim Crow racism to me, I remember it well. And yeah, he was rubbing it in, rubbing it in is essential for those guys.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)what an appropriate word for this...
Hatchling
(2,323 posts)All the significat eveidence from the 3 autopsies agreed. My immediate thought was The PA dicided what evidence was significant, the evidence he could twist to make Wilson seem innocent.