TEACHING WHITE STUDENTS ABOUT BLACKNESS

November 25, 2014, was one of the most meorable days I have had in my twenty-three years as a professor. The night before, the St. Louis County district attorney decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. That evening my family and I watched the CNN coverage of the Ferguson protest for several hours. While the commentators focused on the violence, the looting, and the lack of civil order, my wife and I talked about the long pattern of police brutality in America and why Ferguson’s residents reacted angrily. When I went