It is necessary to delve deep into American history to discover the complex causes of the extraordinary stand off between black and white in Ferguson, Missouri. Americans are shocked but have some understanding of what is going on. The rest of the world is astonished and cannot see how a white policeman can shoot dead an unarmed black teenager, using eight rounds, four while the youth was either dying or dead on the ground, and be found by something called a grand jury meeting behind closed doors as innocent of any wrongdoing. Whatever this is supposed to be, it cannot come under the heading of what most of the free world calls justice. It echoes the South Africa of apartheid.
All of this would be America’s problem and its problem alone, were it not for the fact that America is a country which feels good about itself, so good in fact that it seeks to exert moral influence and leadership over the rest of the world, most of which it judges not up to its standard of freedom, democracy and justice. American politicians of all parties and ethnicities need to take a long hard look at the way some of their public institutions and those who work for them are functioning. Ferguson is not a good publicity platform from which to launch the battle for hearts and minds against Islamic State.