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Eric Zorn's avatar

Via email from Ted M --

It is hard for anyone who is a member in good standing in America's white community (sorry, but I am obliged to acknowledge such demarcations because they are real and guide or dictate our lives) to accept what Joanie W above said, but anyone who belongs to any ethnic group other than white knows she spoke the truth without qualification. Her view is true to life in America, even in its more progressive redoubts, like Chicago, where true egalitarianism only comes close to have been achieved, when, getting down to the crunch, the statistics say it is unfinished business.

Yes, we all owe a debt of gratitude to law enforcement officers for doing their best to keep the peace and arrest wrongdoers. It is a demanding and sometimes dangerous task; which is why they are paid well to do so. (Most cops retire without ever having had to draw their weapon on duty.) But one's sense of where one stands in the cultural/racial pecking order does determine how one behaves; and as concerns law enforcement officers, that sense is not automatically fair, evenhanded or noble just because one of them puts on the uniform for a duty shift.

Ingrained racial postures are permanent; they don't modify just because one puts on a badge, sorry to say. This is proven repeatedly by ongoing events around the nation where unarmed minority civilians are mistreated or killed by one or more white cops. Proof: We never read of it happening tdo white victims. Consider: Of all the stories of people dying unnecessarily at the hands of cops, how many involve cops of color killing (or otherwise harming) white civilians? It's nearly always (99.9%?) the other way around. This statistic cannot be explained away except by invoking the ugly word "racism," which abides in our culture so broadly that it cannot be overlooked or denied. This does not mean that every single interaction involving whites with non-whites, that non-whites get the worse of it. Only in the preponderance of cases, defying the law of probability.

As a city, as a nation, we are slowly improving on this score; but progress spans generations. What exists can't be ignored or buried. It needs to be acknowledged and aired, for the betterment of all. How long has America allowed the Ku Klux Klan to exist, openly or surreptitiously? Please explain why. And why do shadowy wannabees exist, such as the Proud Boys and random militias and hate groups? Why have the powers that be, mostly in the hands of other whites, not squelched them permanently? These disturbing questions abide, but are never addressed. So the hate groups stay with us.

Thank you Joanie W. for reminding us how far short society still is of living up to our code of conduct on an equal basis.

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JakeH's avatar

Dave wrote, "I see the death of Adam Toledo equally as tragic as that of Areanah Preston ...." I don't. I see Adam Toledo's death as tragic. I see Areanah Preston's as an outrage. To put it simply, Toledo was not murdered.

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