Forty someodd years ago we lived in New Hampshire, which was then about as white a placeas you could live in. Our TV news camefrom Boston (at that time a racially fraught place). One day my then 7 year old son asked me ifall Black people were poor. It seemedlike an odd question until I realized that his only knowledge of Black peoplecame from TV, and primarily the news. Despite the fact that most crimes are committed by white people and thetypical welfare recipient is white, almost every story about crime and welfarefeatured a Black face.
The practicecontinues today. With our increasinglypolarized society, many white people grow up in a world that shows a distortedview of people of color. As they growolder, they often make friends with and even marry people of color, whom theyview as outliers – the “good ones”. Deepin their subconscious is the view that most people of color are scarypeople. That’s why two Black men in acoffee shop are so intimidating and why it’s a good idea to follow a Blackwoman in a store to prevent her from shoplifting. We need to understand that these whitepeople (some of whom are police officers) are really scared to be around peopleof color. At the same time, these peoplewill be deeply offended by any suggestion they are racists. They don’t see themselves as having anyanimus against people of color. Theirreactions are so deeply imbedded they can’t even recognize them.
These arenot the people who truly believe that it is just wrong for “lower castes” tohave the life and comforts meant for white folks. (e.g. Greenwood massacre in1921). Nor are they whitesupremacists. They are simply ignorant.
I don’t knowhow we overcome ignorance. Certainly themedia doesn’t help and probably doesn’t really care.
Our onlyhope is the millennials and the younger generations coming up. Many of them are multi-ethnic and seencomfortable with each other. They are informed, articulate and seem to be asconvinced at those of us who grew up in the 60’s that we can be better.
We continueto be grateful to those who saved our liberty on the battlefield. In truth, our liberty has been saved at leastas often by young people on the streets.
