Ferguson: Why Darren Wilson's Indictment Would Not Mean Justice

Organizers, citizens, police officers and even Missouri’s national guard are waiting on edge for the St. Louis Grand Jury’s decision on whether to indict officer Darren Wilson on charges for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Indeed, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s move to issue a state of emergency and activate the National Guard, Ferguson public schools’ decisions to send homework packets home in preparation for school closings, and the FBI’s warning that the decision “will likely” lead to violent protests — all strongly insinuate that a decision against indicting Wilson is imminent, that is, if it hasn’t already been made.

This is immediately sad. Though I am not fully able to empathize with Michael Brown’s family, it must be devastating that the legal system will not punish the murderer of their loved one, will not, in effect, recognize the humanity of Michael Brown.

However, regardless of the Grand Jury’s decision, justice will not be served. Wilson’s indictment would not constitute justice. Indeed, that indictment would fall well short.

Justice, in this case, would mean that Michael Brown was still alive today.

To put it more generally, justice is not that white people be punished for white supremacy (though Wilson should be indicted) — justice would mean that white supremacy never existed.

As a nation, as a people, we have never known justice. Our history does not bear it out. From slavery, to the act of leasing blackprisoners to local factories and coalmines, to Jim and Jane Crow, to the current racialized mass incarceration, our nation really never has been a just one. This is not to suggest we shouldn’t work towards a more just society — but we should refrain from calling on high principles that have never existed within our national narrative, principles that we may never actualize.

Instead, it becomes our duty to discard unfounded self-righteousness and let suffering speak. This will not only allow for the truth to surface, as Cornell West suggests, but it might also finally force the racist American system and culture to comprehensively acknowledge the humanity of Black people. And though this may not actualize justice in the instance of Michael Brown, it might bring us closer in the future — it may prevent another fate similar to Michael Brown’s.