Burned-out store fronts blackened the streets of Ferguson, Mo., Tuesday when Time Magazine published a controversial op-ed, titled “Ferguson: In Defense of Rioting.”
Contributor Darlena Cunha wrote:
As evidence of “normal” citizens’ supposed widespread misunderstanding of the grievances and inequalities exposed by the ordeal in Ferguson, Cunha relied on tweets from television actor Kevin Sorbo — best known for his TV role as Hercules — and a comments section on a Tea Party-related website.
She then noted the supposed differences between so-called white and black privilege, writing “that doesn’t make me a racist, it makes me a realist.”
“If anything, I am racist because I am white. Until I have had to walk in a person of color’s skin, I will never understand, I will always take things for granted, and I will be inherently privileged,” she added.
The Time magazine and Washington Post contributor subsequently pointed to the 1773 Boston Tea Party, which she characterized as a “riot,” as an example of when destructive protest in America was deemed as acceptable.
“What separates a heralded victory in history from an attempt at societal change, a cry for help from the country’s trampled, today?” she asked, adding later that the successful war for American independence is all that separates the two events.
“Blacks in this country are more apt to riot because they are one of the populations here who still need to,” she writes, adding later, “Sometimes, enough is simply too much.”
“Instead of tearing down other human beings who are acting upon decades of pent-up anger at a system decidedly against them, a system that has told them they are less than human for years, we ought to be reaching out to help them regain the humanity they lost, not when a few set fire to the buildings in Ferguson, but when they were born the wrong color in the post-racial America,” she added.
A Time magazine spokesperson did not respond to the Washington Examiner when asked for comment on the op-ed.
