Jia on the Difference Between ALS and Ferguson

As we wake up to news of more arrests and another tense night of protests in Ferguson, Jia’s beautiful and honest piece on the difference between ALS Ice Bucket Challenges and what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri in Time addresses the difference in our responses via social media:

For both social media movements, sharing implies responsibility. We are complicit, by our inaction, in the lack of a working cure. But the tacit acknowledgment that there is blame to be shared and apportioned in Ferguson cuts much deeper and stops right at a telling, crucial boundary. We can’t call our friends to action on a target that remains simultaneously the plainest and most disputed evil in America, a target that many people refuse to believe exists.