Michael Brown

A friend of mine shared this article, America is not for Black People by Greg Howard and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because every word that is written is the truth. The saddest thing I see is the trend of 
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown which picture would they use? This is based on the fact that Michael Brown was an honor roll student, set to go to college in Engineering the day he was killed, but the picture that was shown by the media was this. The article goes into more detail:

"After Brown's death came his demonization. First, we heard that Brown had run for stealing candy from a store. Then we were bombarded with a photo of Brown in a red Nike tank top on a stoop, posing for the camera.

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This photo, in which Brown was flashing a "gang sign"—a peace sign, actually—was presented as proof that the teenager was a thug; his friends and family now not only have to work through their grief, but against a posthumous slur campaign. Johnson described his friend in an MSNBC interviewas cool and quiet. Brown's uncle, Bernard Ewings, said in a Sunday interview thatBrown loved music. Brown's mother, Leslie McSpadden, said that he was funny and could make people laugh. He graduated from high school in the spring, and was headed to college to pursue a career in heating and cooling engineering. Monday would have been his first day.
By all accounts, Brown was One Of The Good Ones. But laying all this out, explaining all the ways in which he didn't deserve to die like a dog in the street, is in itself disgraceful. Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed."

And that's the issue right there. That, maybe, if this young man was shown as a gangbanger or a thug, somehow his life wouldn't have the same value as another man's life (a cop, specifically). I also appreciate how this author points out how foolish and counterproductive the looters and violent protesters were. Be smarter, people! So frustrating.
Anyway, that's the danger of the "Single Story." It can cause people to value one life over another with a single image, and it should be the media's responsibility to stop that from happening. They have so.much.power. How can they not see?

So... it's a good and thought-provoking read, but it hurts. As it should....