Your article made it very difficult to not elicit frustration. At first I thought the title was a joke.

Danielle, do you honestly believe by not addressing the issue of racism in regards to police brutality and every other defining cultural scope of America and its history, that things will just go away on their own? You must be suffering from lack of object permanence where you honestly believe if you don’t acknowledge something then it doesn’t exist.

 I’m appalled someone would consider this a plausible solution…to anything. Denial of racism is the new racism and your current colorblind attitude toward Ferguson is not only the height of what ignorance is, but is amplifying the problem more than any protestor could possibly do.

Who is this sheltered?

The civil rights movement is not over and in fact, it was started as an effort by the U.S. government to further suppress black resistance groups over the same issues people at Ferguson are protesting today for: the recognition and value of black life.

300 years of enslavement cannot be undone in 50 years, and if you cannot grasp the wound and hurt black people carry from this and continue to suffer from, you need to take a very big nap.

Racism is not an attitude or a hateful excuse for whatever absurd reasons you can think of. Race does not come as a card someone can pull out of their wallet or a grace that can be summoned on a whim to save them or help them get a job.

It is something we were born with, and for marginalized groups, people of color, and black people, this is a defining aspect of our lives that we have to live with every day.

Racism describes the systematic oppression that has been established to benefit those individuals who invaded and colonized this country in the first place and has been embedded in American institutions from the beginning, based on race.

 It is extremely dangerous to think as the title of Danielle’s article says. People who share your attitude and opinions have taken up enough space.

Let black people’s voices be heard.

If this somehow gets published I want everyone to know if non-black people care at all about Ferguson and want to help, then you can start by talking to your own community members who share Danielle’s attitude about race because it’s not black people’s responsibility to let you know what’s up.

Collect your people. Inform yourselves.

Don’t be afraid to talk about race and white supremacy.

— Stephanie Keomany, Wichita State student