www.ebonyjoywilkins.com
books contact about news & events Ebony Joy Wilkins Copy Editing blog extras

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Today, someone told me Mike Brown's voice didn't matter

I don't know her personally, but ...

Today, someone told me Mike Brown's voice didn't matter. I was scrolling my Twitter TL and she (her photo icon is a red stapler, which I hope doesn't indicate that she is a fellow teacher) direct-messaged me, accusing me of favoring one side over the other. Although her comment, "Mike's side of the story doesn't matter," felt like a slap in the face, not only to me, but to all of my brothers out there, I remained calm with her and tried to find some common ground.

I asked if her statement was in fact an example of favoring one side over the other. She replied right away saying, "you people are full of s---." She then continued to prove her case saying she had been following the story on Fox News since Mike's death in Ferguson, Missouri and she was sticking only with facts, unlike myself. She was tired of the eyewitness accounts constantly changing. Ah yes, Fox News, of course. Upon hearing this, I asked if she had explored other news sources to get a more balanced view of the news coverage. She had not. She didn't know of any other news sources.

While I wanted to make fun of her apparent ignorance, I chose not to, and invited her to agree on at least one thing: There was loss of life nine days ago. A teen is no longer headed off to college. Mike Brown is no longer here to tell his side of the story of that night. No matter what side of the coin one chooses to view this tragedy, it is a tragedy indeed. All life matters. All loss of life matters, too. Once the videos and name-calling from her continued to flood my TL, I ended up having to block her. We found no common ground. However, the idea that there are folks among us who don't feel like some lives are worth living, is crushing, heartbreaking.

Despite not having every single detail from the fateful night in Ferguson, I do know one thing: Mike Brown's voice did matter. His side of the story did, and still matters. No matter his choices that day, his life was worth living.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home