Rage and Reaction

In recent weeks, we’ve certainly seen enough rage to recognize its pervasive presence. What has been surprising is how unfocused it seems to be. All of us carry beneath our consciousness trigger points, those things that are hidden from our everyday actions but when touched unleash a reaction that is not only startling strong, but diffusely directed. We are seeing that played out over the nation in response to the tragic events in Ferguson, MO.

The progress that has been made in race relations in our lifetimes has been seismic. Long gone are the days of separate but equal and the disgrace of massive resistance, a policy orchestrated by our Roanoke-native governor, J. Lindsay Almond, Jr. The catalogue of accomplishments fostered by Martin Luther King, Jr and countless others cannot be overestimated, but everyone agrees that there is much to be done before true equality is achieved.

The problems remaining lie much closer to the surface and arise from a depth of discrimination that seems to be largely overlooked until some egregious event occurs such as we have seen in the killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. The reaction to such senseless slaughter almost instantly takes on a life of its own. The police response coupled with the anger in the community escalated the dangers instantly. Sad to day, but true, had these victims been white, had the police actions been more moderate, it would not have made the front page of any paper beyond the local circulation.

The vast majority of white Americans do not have that reservoir of discrimination in our backgrounds. As a culture there is nothing in our DNA that can compare with the centuries of injustice that the African-Americans have endured. That we as a nation have made great strides to right those wrongs is undeniable but that has done little to bank the fires of rage that smolder on in those who have lived their entire lives with the experience of being treated unfairly. For those who have never faced the challenge of overcoming the heritage which they carry as an unwarranted burden, it is impossible to comprehend their anger. We may say we understand it, but that is a far different thing from living with it, day in and day out, year after year.

There is a disconnect from the justifiable rage and the call for justice in incidents like these and the violence that springs from them. How does the reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown morph to the massive looting of stores? What is the earthly connection of alleged police violence to firebombs and stealing from merchants? Outrage is understandable and it must be adjudicated . . . and quickly . . . but rage is not associated with reason any more than a fire makes decisions about what will be burned; it takes on a life of its own.

Incidents like this will continue as long as rage roils just below the surface. No one would deny there is the possibility of real injustice in the killing of this young man; that must be sorted out but when criminality enters into the expression of legitimate anger, then everyone suffers.

Somehow we must all move beyond allowing events, tragic and unjust as they may be, to devolve from rational response to rage that knows no restraint. To ignore that challenge can undo the progress made in race relations since those dark days when we were anything but “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” That is a goal worth the price all Americans, regardless of past history or ethnic background, should be willing to pay.

Rage and reaction, be it from a disadvantaged community or overzealous policing, will be unlikely to do anything other than set the stage for further violence, deepening the wounds of distrust and dishonoring all of us.

– Hayden Hollingsworth

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