According to author-commentator Keith Boykin, the events that have unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, since Aug. 9 are emblematic of a significant moment in history.
"There is something going on," said Boykin, who grew up in Florissant, a St. Louis suburb. He has been back in the area since events that followed in the wake of Michael Brown's shooting began.
"People are upset," according to Boykin. "It's not just about the Michael Brown thing—that's the catalyst for it all. But it feels like what happened before Michael Brown was shot, and what's happened since, are a large part of the problem."
Boykin is a contributor for CNBC, MSNBC and BET, among other outlets. His books include Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America and For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough. He was additionally the highest-ranking openly gay person in the Clinton administration.
On Aug. 14, Boykin posted a link to Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth on his blog and wrote that, "It feels like there's something happening in our country right now from Ferguson to New York to Los Angeles. This song…describes the feeling I have about it."
The Ferguson events "are not just about Ferguson," Boykin told Windy City Times. "I think it's about St. Louis and the country in general. St. Louis has always been a very segregated place and Ferguson is just one element of that."
Residents in the region rarely think of themselves as being from a neighborhood or suburb, according to Boykin. They usually say they are from St. Louis. "Even when I lived in Florissant, which is part of the suburbs, I thought of myself as being from St. Louis, not Florissant, even though that was part of my address. People around here just identify with the area, from the St. Louis Cardinals on down.
"I drove through the main drag of Ferguson, where city hall is, and there are now restaurants and outdoor cafes, but that's the 'good' side of it. That part of town is getting very well developed. That's the part where white people go. If you go where Michael Brown lived, you don't see that stuff. You have a bunch of strip malls where there's a lot of things like tattoo places and Kwik Trips."
Boykin said that, from his own observations, "95 percent of the demonstrators—maybe even 99 percent—are peaceful demonstrators who don't want to cause a scene. Maybe some do want to, but they're not doing anything. They're waiting for provocation."
When police showed up in riot gear and armored cars, people were provoked, he added.
"When they drove through the crowd, that [also] provoked people. There were virtually no people in the streets at all. They were in the parking lots of the strip malls. They weren't in the street. After midnight most people went home. If I had to give the police a grade, I'd give them an 'F.'
"It's kind of pathetic that they can't see the basic ideas of respect would go a long way. … The more uncomfortable you make it for people, the more uncomfortable they become. They you provoke people, the more provoked they become," Boykin noted.
The Ferguson events point to the United States having to confront racism against persons of color, and has becomepart of a larger conversation that's been going on since the 1960s.
"People ask, 'What do you people want now? Why are you people complaining?'" Boykin said. "There's a history of white denial in our society, denial that discrimination and prejudice still continues against African Americans. If you ask some whites—Republicans in particular—the only discrimination they think exists is discrimination against white people."
He noted that a white woman indeed showed up to the protests to show solidarity with police officer Darren Wilson. "She had this idea, 'I should go there and tell them that they shouldn't be upset.'"
Much of that denial, he added, stems from a need to feel blameless for transgressions of their ancestors. "What black people want to say is, 'You may not have done anything directly, but you are the beneficiary of a long legacy that is still perpetuated today.' That's why people with Black-sounding names don't get callbacks for job interviews, or why people who live in Black neighborhoods have to pay higher interest rates on car loans. Or people on the street can get shot for the same things white people do."
Boykin said that it is difficult for the president to direct this conversation, and said that he was tired of the meme calling for him to convene a "national conversation on race."
"We tried that when I was in the Clinton administration," he added. "[President Clinton] had a 'national conversation' he wanted to launch back then, and that was in the 90s. They form commissions and issue reports, and nothing has changed. It's a conversation that everyone needs to be engaged in, not just the president."
President Obama is in an even more difficult position, since most of his comments about Ferguson became fodder for right-wing politicians and commentators. "If he expresses more empathy for Michael Brown than he already has, it just enflames the conservative base. Instead of tamping down on the flames, it just makes them worse. I don't think there's any benefit [for Obama's comments] anymore. It's not going to change anyone's mind."
He said some measures that can hold police officers accountable for their actions are in order.
"One thing people have been talking about is video cameras on police uniforms…The idea of videotaping is a great step forward. Another is training to use nonlethal force. But I really think the big issue is about race and people don't want to admit it."
Boykin noted that, after the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, the suspect, James Eagan Holmes, who is white, was apprehended and arrested.
"People who are white end up walking away and getting arrested," Boykin said. "People who are Black and didn't kill anybody end getting shot and killed. That happens because police officers, like everybody else, have conscious and subconscious biases that make them think black people are dangerous."
He added that that can only end when the issue of bias is confronted head-on: "You can have all the police training in the world, and all the video cameras, and technology solutions you can come up with, but this is not a technology problem."
