MAC wrote above:
[[ Already I suspect most people see Wilson as the offender. Last night on FoxNews Steve Harrigan, better known for his hurricane coverage, was interviewing a young black, and said "I'm here with (whoever) and we're talking about Mike Brown, the murdered man". ]]
Shouldn't you have more correctly said:
"Already I suspect most black people see Wilson as the offender" ???
I posted this before, and I'll post it again:
With incidents like this, there is "white truth", and there is "black truth" -- both derived from the same set of facts.
The "two truths" are split apart by the "racial prism" (I take claim for coining that term).
That is to say, just as an ordinary prism splits a single beam of light into various colors, the racial prism takes reality and "divides" it into two separate realities or truths.
Whites see one set of facts their way, reflecting their side of the prism.
Blacks, when presented with the same facts, see things entirely differently, from their side of the prism.
The prism may distort the reality on both sides, but the distortion seems greater on "the black side".
There is no way to fix this, to make blacks and whites see the same truths and realities from their respective sides of the prism. I predict this cannot and will never be achieved.
Given that reality, the only thing for whites to do is to accept the reality that blacks are going to behave their own way according to their own "black truths", and try to get along the best in spite of it. And frankly, whites shouldn't worry that much about it (other than exerting whatever control or force is necessary to keep the peace).
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could fix this, if we could get rid of the racial prism?
Of course, certainly. Who would not wish for this?
BUT -- as I've said here before:
Reality is what it is.
It is NOT what we believe it to be.
There are some problems for which there are no solutions....
