But it did not end our racism. Not even one hundred and fifty years has been enough for that.
We need look no further than last Saturday's murder of an unarmed, fleeing black man by a white police officer. The story is disgustingly familiar: a black man is stopped by police for some minor violation and ends up shot dead by the police officer. In North Charleston it was a broken tail light; in Ferguson it was walking in the middle of the street; in Staten Island it was selling single cigarettes on the street; in Cleveland it was a 12 year old boy playing in the park with a toy gun.
Is there any doubt that, if these men and boys had been white, they would still be alive today? Would even that trigger happy, too-frightened-to-be-rational Cleveland cop have shot him if he had been a little white boy?
This is not a global indictment of police or the justice system. But the occurrences are far too frequent to brush aside as a few rogue officers losing their cool.
Ralph
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