Even scarier is the growing
feeling that the rich have too much control, and the poor are living miserable
existences.
In other words, those with
money in the U.S. have more to worry about than blacks.
It has not shut up Donald
Trump who supports dictators like Russia’s Putin, and often has responded
within minutes to any violence with a warning that he would use nukes and ban
people he doesn’t like.
His campaign apparently feels
whites are so scared they want to hear tweets blaming President Obama for the
recent violence.
Trump may be going against
the flow. There were protests across the country by people who believe police are too quick to use their guns, and are unlikely to face prosecution.
Democrat Hillary Clinton, who
has a nearly double-digit lead in some polls, said more has to be done to quiet
anxieties about racism.
"White
Americans need to do a better job of listening when African-Americans talk
about the seen and unseen barriers you face every day," Clinton told a
largely black group. "We need to try, as best we can, to walk in one
another's shoes -- to imagine what it would be like if people followed us
around stores or locked their car doors when we walked past ... or, if every
time our children went to play in the park, or just to the store to buy iced
tea and Skittles, we said a prayer: 'Please God, don't let anything happen to
my baby.'”
Candidates from both parties
throughout the country have urged that politicians not use the recent violence
as a way to get elected.
How we handled slavery has
become a topic again, and not just on Broadway.
Art often suggests where a
nation in trouble is headed, whether it is South Africa or the U.S. Theaters in
Johannesburg were full of plays about the evils of apartheid, and clearly
played a role in ending white-minority rule.
The Washington Post says the
U.S. needn’t fear Nat Turner kind of slave revolts.
“But it still must
worry about the aggrieved black man,” the Post said.
In South Africa,
police often found themselves defending white richesse, though they were not by
any means wealthy themselves.
The danger in the U.S.
is not a black majority. It is much more complicated. Many minorities,
including Hispanics and Asians, consider themselves modern-day serfs.
One thing is clear.
Reviews of demographics show minorities are growing. Firstly, they have higher
birth rates.
Police forces have
growing numbers of minorities.
The idea that the
widespread presence of mobile phones would make police more careful and result
in fewer police shootings of civilians hasn’t happened.
The Washington Post
Gun Archive Project shows fatal shootings by police are not dropping.
The shooter in Dallas,
who killed five police, was trained in the U.S. Army, served in Afghanistan,
said he attacked them because so many fellow blacks were being killed by
police.
Blacks are more likely to be shot dead by police than their percentage of the population would suggest.
Blacks are more likely to be shot dead by police than their percentage of the population would suggest.
For seniors, President
Obama’s visit to Dallas this week will bring back unpleasant memories of the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy there.
Police shootings of
blacks have rarely resulted in convictions. The optic is such that many,
perhaps most, see police risking their lives and therefore some deaths that
would be called collateral.
In Minnesota, a black
man was killed by a policeman when a witness said he had told the officer who
had pulled him over that he was carrying permitted gun.
There is recognition
that it is not simply a black and white issue.
The
conservative Web site RedState said: “Reasonable people
can disagree about the prevalence of police brutality in America, and the
extent to which race plays a factor in it. I don't think reasonable people can
disagree that excessive police force is punished way less often than it actually
happens. And that's the kind of problem that leads to
people taking up guns and committing acts of violence - tragically (and with
evil intent) against cops who as far as we know have done nothing wrong.
“But people's willingness to act rationally
and within the confines of the law and the political system is generally
speaking directly proportional to their belief that the law and political
system will ever punish wrongdoing. And right now, that belief is largely
broken, especially in many minority communities.”
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/08/politics/hillary-clinton-joe-biden/
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