US, Ukraine or Middle East? Ferguson Images Made It Hard to Tell
The images out of Ferguson, Missouri, looked more like what one sees in Middle Eastern hot spots than in a Midwestern town: peaceful protesters from an alienated minority brutally dispered by law enforcers armed with military-grade weapons.
To many Americans, the disregard for fundamental constitutional rights shown by Ferguson cops laid bare a deep-seated racism in at least one community in the U.S. heartland. But many observers around the world saw an even more disturbing dynamic at work.
In their eyes, Americans were exposed as hypocrites on human rights—promoters of a strict standard of behavior abroad while harboring the most egregious violations at home.
Countries with their own histories of human-rights abuses are now pointing at the treatment of blacks and protesters of all races in the U.S as proof of a self-righteous double standard. Even though the story is fading from the headlines, it is likely to have much longer-playing impact on foreign perceptions of the U.S.—and a profound role in the propaganda wars.
http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/09/12/us-ukraine-or-middle-east-ferguson-images-made-it-hard-to-tell/print/
