11/24/14: As of this writing, the grand jury's decision is expected later today. The news broke around noon, first at CNN then MSNBC. The overall tenor in my neighborhood is calm, but anxious. (Some protests are expected close to where I am.) I think most people are just weary and anxious to get it over with.
If anything good has come out of the national media attention since Mike Brown's death back in August, it's broken open something that a lot of us in St. Louis has known but rarely talk about: how racially polarized the city and its suburbs are. Yeah, it's that way all over the country, but you can literally draw a line between black and white here. The south gets the lion's share of attention when it comes to racial inequality, and sure its history can't be ignored, but in other parts of the US, even in "nice" liberal cities, racial inequality still cuts deep.
Update: Anyone shocked by the grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson and its inevitable consequences, I envy you. No really, it must be nice to live in a world where racism is something we fought decades ago, and long-standing structural inequality can be overcome with enough hard work and drive. What's really surprising is that something like Ferguson took so long.
