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There has been some interesting doings in Missouri in the last two weeks. Following the officer-involved fatal shooting of a young man. This is the over simplified way of looking at what actually happened. If you don’t know, the town of Ferguson has 53 police officers, 3 of whom are black. The town happens to be ⅔ black. The officer involved in the shooting is white. The young man was Mike Brown, an African American teenager. It also turns out that Brown was shot 6 times, including twice in the head. The series of protests set off by the event have spurred violence in the streets, with police militarization, tear gas canisters being fired into crowds of civilians, police officers arresting journalists and holding them without charge, and the list goes on as the days continue. Across the country, protests of solidarity are springing up. Citizens in New York City have been arrested in protests. Los Angeles saw gatherings with t-shirts emblazoned with “Hands up, don’t shoot”.
So how did we get here? And for us as educators, how do we handle this? As educators who may or may not be far away from the actual situation, how do we engage our students in conversations about society that will enable them to grow into thinkers who fight to be a part of a better society? Ultimately, what does a better society look like? Where are we failing ourselves?
This week’s #totallyrossome is focused on not only what is happening in Ferguson, MO right now, but also the issues that prevail in our country that allow situations like this to occur. We like to talk about going all in for whatever it is we’re doing at the time, and this will be no different. Our conversation is going to focus on creating the perfect world. Bring your opinions and bring your respect. We’ve got a lot to do.
How differently the situation is being reported or commented on:
Fox News (a 12 minute video looking at the situation from a variety of standpoints) -
USA Today (video and text about support for alleged shooter) -
Sunil Dutta in the Washington Post -
News One for Black America (video) -
Mail Online -
via Slate: John Oliver on Last Week Tonight “So you’re taking a group of people tired of being treated like criminals and locking them up in their homes for a night.” (some foul language) -
Teaching Tolerance -
Posted on Twitter from @SchleiderJustin after publication: http://www.vox.com/cards/mike-brown-protests-ferguson-missouri/mike-brown-shooting-facts-details
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