Jewish groups called for civil and serious discussion about race, democracy and justice in the wake of a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed African American teen in Ferguson.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs in a statement issued Nov. 26 affirmed its support for peaceful demonstration and called for “locally led serious, civil and hard conversations on race, opportunity, and representative democracy in America today.”
American Jewish World Service President Ruth Messinger called the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson a “glaring failing” of our society that is “not a personal foible or one-time event but is rooted in the history of racism which — despite all the progress we have made as a society — still diminishes our justice system.”
The Anti-Defamation League said in a statement that it respected the Missouri grand jury’s decision not to bring charges against Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Brown and called the tragedy a wake-up call.
“Fifty years after the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, our society is still not free from bias, racial prejudice, and discrimination. African-Americans are still the most frequent targets of hate crimes in America, black students are suspended or expelled from our public schools at a much higher rate than white students, and there are many other examples that show the continuing racial divide,” Karen Aroesty, ADL St. Louis regional director, and Abraham Foxman, ADL national director, wrote in the statement.
Bend the Arc CEO Stosh Cotler said her organization was “deeply disappointed” by the grand jury’s decision, but added, “All Americans have a moral responsibility to honor Michael Brown’s life by helping to dismantle the systemic racial injustices underlying his death.” — jta