Complicated and dangerous

Michael Brown was an 18year- old African American shot and killed in August 2014 by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Mo.

Much of America thought the story was a simple one. It wasn’t.

The story many of us heard was that he had his hands up, willing to surrender to Mr. Wilson, when he was shot dead.

This belief persists today. When protesters say, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” they are referring to Michael Brown.

The truth, however, was more complicated.

When the Department of Justice concluded its six- month investigation, then- Attorney General Eric Holder announced that there was no evidence to support the story that Brown was surrendering.

A grand jury declined to indict Mr. Wilson.

The Justice Department also found systemic racism in Ferguson and in its police department.

Now the distinguished writer and scholar Shelby Steele and his filmmaker son, Eli Steele, both of whom are African American, have made a documentary that explores the deeper meaning of what occurred in that small Missouri town. “What Killed Michael Brown?” was released on Friday.

But Amazon, a company that entered the movie business a few months after Brown’s death, informed the Steele family that their film is “not eligible for publishing” because it “doesn’t meet Prime Video’s content quality expectations.”

Amazon went on to say it “will not be accepting re- submission of this title and this decision may not be appealed.”

What was the offense of this documentary? What has caused Amazon to banish it when it publishes and sells just about any kind of movie? Complexity.

The film suggests that truth, and the truth about race, is complicated.

It points out that this particular case is complicated and not as it initially seemed to many of us.

The documentary questions the proposition that white police officers throughout the nation are targeting Black Americans, and shooting them because police officers are generally cruel and racist people.

And so the film is dangerous. It questions assumptions and introduces facts that may have been looked over or discarded.

The truth is usually complicated, and usually dangerous.

But the Steeles’ documentary attempts to find depth and context for understanding what occurred in Ferguson and the aftermath of the protests.

And if we want a true conversation about race and poverty and policing in our cities and neighborhoods, then Amazon’s decision is tragic. It shuts down free speech and shuts down a conversation that needs to take place in America.

The hope is that the Steeles will find another platform for their film and other ways for complexity and truth to find air.