Marie Henehan,
Sidney, IL.
I’m European American Vietnam generation female grandchild of immigrants. I have not ever been an activist. If all white people were like me, blacks would not have such serious problems. So with a pat on my back, I have been complacent and uninvolved, safe in my well-off white bubble. _I’m_ not a racist. I am also not at risk of being hurt by racism. I do not have to personally mourn Michael Brown or others. But I am now enraged, appalled, and feeling distressed and helpless in the face of these shootings. I started wondering why white people are not complaining about police treatment of blacks with the shooting of Kiwane Carrington and evidence of racial profiling in police stopping cars in Champaign Illinois. It shouldn’t be just blacks who are appalled – everyone should be appalled. I understand the threat to cops and the horror of cop-killers, but if it is easier for “you” to shoot a black male than another type of person, then “you” have to proactively figure out what to do about that. (And that “you” includes me.) That’s why I am upset that I am not part of the solution.
