Racism: Is Liberal West Free from Filth?

It is argued that liberal democracies no longer reel under the oppressive customs such as racism. Only Asian countries like India and Pakistan bear the brunt of aggressive, pre-modern social customs. The Ferguson Shooting is a foil for this liberal democratic myth, if anything.

The shooting of Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, led to a nationwide protest, some of it violent, and several tense confrontations between residents of the St. Louis suburban town and the police. Brown, an 18-year-old black student from Ferguson, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer. It sparked a vigorous debate about law enforcement’s relationship with African-Americans, and police use of force doctrine in Missouri and nationwide. A St. Louis grand jury declined to indict Wilson on any charges, and a federal investigation later cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. A second federal investigation found that the Ferguson police routinely stereotyped and discriminated against African American residents in violation of the Constitution.

Following the grand jury announcement, protests, some of them violent, broke out in Ferguson and other cities across the United States. Several Ferguson businesses were looted and fires set by protesters. Protests erupted in 170 cities across the US including, St Louis, Philadelphia, Seattle, Albuquerque, New York City, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Chicago and Boston. Dozens were arrested during Ferguson protest in the US. Protesters had called for Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson’s removal since the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

The gunshots fired at police officers during a demonstration in Ferguson on 12 March, 2015, came from behind demonstrators, witnesses have claimed. The shooting came just hours after the city’s police chief resigned in the wake of a Justice Department report accusing the department of racially-biased policing.

President Barack Obama has denounced the shooting of two police officers in racially-charged Ferguson, Missouri, calling it a criminal act and said the shooter or shooters “need to be arrested.” But the president, who still basks in the Afro-American legacy, has nothing to say about the arrest of Jackson or his ‘crime.’ Does this suggest that the White House harbours ‘white’ ethos?