"Frustration in Ferguson", Charles M. Blow
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"The community is struggling to find its way back to normalcy, but it would behoove us to dig a bit deeper into the underlying frustrations that cause a place like Ferguson to erupt in the first place and explore the untenable nature of our normal.
Yes, there are the disturbingly repetitive and eerily similar circumstances of many cases of unarmed black people being killed by police officers. This reinforces black people’s beliefs — supportable by actual data — that blacks are treated less fairly by the police.
But I submit that this is bigger than that. The frustration we see in Ferguson is about not only the present act of perceived injustice but also the calcifying system of inequity — economic, educational, judicial — drawn largely along racial lines.
In 1951, Langston Hughes began his poem “Harlem” with a question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” Today, I must ask: What happens when one desists from dreaming, when the very exercise feels futile? "
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/opinion/charles-m-blow-frustration-in-ferguson.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&gwh=3B86B76BCA0C93C0D5B67C75695F0C6F&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion
Excellent piece!