For all your friends who believe we’re somehow “post-racial,” I hope they’ve been watching the news unfold in Ferguson, Missouri.
If we’re celebrating 50 years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act, it’s hard to believe after watching the news there’s been that much progress.
50 years? All negated by a few days in Missouri.
I lived in St. Louis just 13 years after the Civil Rights Act passed and can attest to the segregation that existed back then. Give it time? St. Louis has only calcified in its segregated trends since then, and it has established a negative legacy in everything from housing, education, employment and particularly in law enforcement.
Would more Black cops have helped in Ferguson?
You bet.
And when the Missouri State Highway Patrol was put in charge to help the majority White cops, they weren’t much better. A 2011 report showed the troopers had a minority employee makeup of just 4.62, plainly stating that “the largest disparity exists among Blacks.”
