Holding Multiple Realities

As I reflect on people’s attitudes regarding the event in Ferguson I am struck by how challenging it is for people to see more than one side of a situation. This event reminded me of one of the most crucial concepts introduced in the CSU Masters in Diversity Program, the importance of being able to hold multiple realities. It’s the idea that conflicting realities can simultaneously exist and both can be valid. Very rarely in life can you synthesize events to simply one polarity or the other; in this case black or white when there is so much in the gray area. There is ALWAYS more to the story.

Neither the victim nor the perpetrator is completely innocent. Michael Brown’s own family admits that he was “no angel” and it took minimal effort for the local police department to produce visual evidence of his aggressive behavior. Based on the brazen manner in which he strong-armed the store owner I would venture to guess that it wasn’t his first time engaging in that type of browbeating conduct.

The Police Officer, Darren Wilson’s demeanor was just as brazen and disrespectful, and as an employee of the city in the act of conducting city business I would add unprofessional, as he approached the teenagers using profanity, ordering them to “Get the F out of the street.” Darren Wilson was also not a stranger to controversy. He was fired along with several other officers from a neighboring city because of heightened tensions between the police and the community. An article in the Washington Post described Darren as “someone who grew up in a home marked by multiple divorces and tangles with the law.”

Both parties engaging in aggressive and intimidating behavior ended in a tragedy which has people parked in separate camps, blaming the other side. Without knowing either young man I am relatively certain that the soundbites and fragmented information disseminated by the media don’t begin to capture the complexity of either of their lives. The reality is we are complex beings and housed within all of us is the capacity for immense affection and excessive violence. If Michael Brown had been White or Darren Wilson had been Black this would not even have made the headlines.

Normella Walker