{"id":38522,"date":"2014-11-26T18:48:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T18:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=38522"},"modified":"2017-02-19T22:51:54","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T22:51:54","slug":"obama-failed-ferguson-the-prosecutor-is-pathetic-between-the-split-screen-the-protesters-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=38522","title":{"rendered":"Obama failed Ferguson. The prosecutor is pathetic. Between the split-screen, the protesters get it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama failed Ferguson. The prosecutor is pathetic. Between the split-screen, the protesters get it<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\nLondon, United Kingdom
\n2014-11-25<\/p>\n

Steven W. Thrasher<\/strong><\/a>, Columnist for Guardian US<\/p>\n

Politicians have found themselves on the wrong side of the gap between the fantasy of what the law does and the reality that people live<\/em><\/p>\n

There we had Barack Obama<\/a>, the first black president of the United States, finally admitting<\/a> on one side of the television that structural racism is real<\/a>. There we finally had him saying that when it comes to police terrorizing black folks, \u201ccommunities of color aren\u2019t just making these problems up\u201d. But, in nearly the same breath on Monday night after the grand-jury decision in Ferguson<\/a>, as the people were taking to the streets in cities across the nation<\/a>, the president also said he doesn\u2019t believe unequal enforcement of the law is \u201cthe norm. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true for the majority of communities or the vast majority of law enforcement officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just surreal, then, to witness Obama\u2019s anti-Trayvon Martin moment<\/a> at the very same time a split-screen on the other side of the TV showed police launching smoke bombs at protesters in Ferguson<\/a>. It was heartbreaking. Because if that was reality rising up through the gap<\/a> on Monday night, the reality is that legal discrimination is the norm<\/a> \u2013 and our law enforcement officials refuse to acknowledge reality…<\/p>\n

…So it was nothing short of a gut punch to see our African American president on the wrong side of the gap between the fantasy of what the law does and the reality that people live. Obama, in that moment, gave credence to the fiction that if citizens just faithfully adhere to being \u201ca nation built on the rule of law\u201d, the result will be justice. Perhaps he will finally go to Ferguson tomorrow, but today, we are a nation looking upon a pile of ashes, death and broken dreams…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama failed Ferguson. The prosecutor is pathetic. Between the split-screen, the protesters get it The Guardian London, United Kingdom 2014-11-25 Steven W. Thrasher, Columnist for Guardian US Politicians have found themselves on the wrong side of the gap between the fantasy of what the law does and the reality that people live There we had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,1467,8,26,20],"tags":[18514,17765,17766,773,18193,18191,2103],"class_list":["post-38522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-law","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-darren-wilson","tag-ferguson","tag-michael-brown","tag-missouri","tag-steven-thrasher","tag-steven-w-thrasher","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51698,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38522\/revisions\/51698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}