My parents are being such jerks about Ferguson. They keep saying that it was handled fairly, that this was the best way it could have turned out, that no one knows what really happened, etc. It’s really depressing for me and is actually kind of pissing me off. Any advice for talking to them?

meggannn:

• Bring up the fact that the Ferguson police have lied countless of times about the details of the shooting but the witnesses’ stories never changed so we have absolutely NO reason to trust their word on pretty much anything much less anything regarding this case
• Bring up the fact that this happens so often that “giving the police the benefit of the doubt” starts to get a little old when we’re dealing with black people’s lives consistently on the line bc this isn’t an isolated event and the country pretending that it is will just let it happen more often
• Bring up the fact that this wasn’t even a trial, this was a decision whether to GO to trial or not, and people have been put on trial for less than shooting an innocent, unarmed person
• And definitely bring up the fact that they WANT attitudes like your parents’, they WANT people to be content with the way it turned out, they WANT people to sigh and say “well it’s a shame but what can you do” then turn the channel to and forget about it till the next episode of Real Housewives, they WANT indifference and apathy and people who take the ~middle ground~ as though it’s some holy unbiased untainted position, it’s the best thing they could get besides outright support, and they will protect and defend the ~middle grounders~ over the activists who are risking violence and dehumanization by protesting out in the streets every night. They WANT (white) middle class suburbia to sigh and shrug and forget about this by next month, bc it’s how they’ll get away with doing it again.

That’s where I’d start anyway. good luck dude