It has been 58 days since the murder of Mike Brown and the beginning of the resulting protests. These were led initially by the community of Ferguson, Missouri then followed by displays of solidarity and action from allies throughout the United States and around the world as support streamed in from protesters in Gaza, Hong Kong, and Sao Paolo.

It has been 41 days since the first day of school and still conversations and discussion surrounding the events in Ferguson have been surprisingly sparse within the SPA community, considering our school is so politically inclined. Our lack of action ignores the reality that there are students at SPA and in our wider community who are directly affected by police brutality and indicates disregard for primarily black and Latino lives. To combat this lack of attention, Intercultural Club in conjunction with Common Ground Affinity Group posted a letter on the opinion board in early September in hopes of inspiring discussion, and both groups have worked to initiate and encourage discussions during meetings. Through further efforts from IC, Common Ground, SSJ, and Poetry Aloud, many students engaged in the International Day of Peace event — the human peace sign and poetry reading by senior Bella Martinez — in late September which was organized in solidarity with Ferguson.

Intercultural Club’s efforts this fall have been primarily focused on the goal of encouraging dialogue within our community regarding Ferguson, the government, and public reaction, as well as how these events lend themselves to a larger picture of the reality of American racial power dynamics. It is vital that we as a community discuss Ferguson intellectually when necessary, but without disregard for the feelings accompanying a topic which is extremely jarring and personal to members of our community. We must remember that rather than exploring the topic from afar and through the scope of the ‘SPA bubble’ we must search for what Ferguson and the surrounding discussion means within SPA.

#Ferguson Tweets

Due to media blackouts, coverage tainted with microagressions, and less coverage with passing time, Twitter has been the most abundant source of information on the developments of the Ferguson protests through live tweets and videos from involved residents and reporters. To learn more about developments in Ferguson Twitter search #ferguson, @AntonioFrench, @OpFerguson, @WesleyLowery, #Mike Brown, #JusticeForMikeBrown, or #RequiemForMikeBrown all of which will have a plethora of updates. All are welcome to join Intercultural Club to discuss, and the members of Intercultural club encourage anyone interested to join SPU and Common Ground during X-period on Thursday October 9th for a formal discussion.