Thomas Swift wrote: "to interject the notion that nothing bad would ever happen to people of color if racists did not exist is false and creates an atmosphere that perpetuates doubt."
Your mistake, Mr. Swift, is believing that systemic racism implies intent. What we should measure our system by is not intent, but end result. And the simple facts of the justice system in this country is that racial minorities are vastly overrepresented in the tallies of the imprisoned and those who lose their lives to police gunfire. I'm not trying to say, nor did I read Matthea as trying to say, that the individual police officers are horrible racists who shot this man because he was black. My point was twofold: 1. As long as we have a violent police force, those who suffer this violence will be disproportionately non-white. This should serve as one source of motivation for fixing the problem. 2. It is reasonable to hypothesize, as members of the Somali community have done, that Mr. Jeilani's race and the fact that he was speaking a language individual white people may associate with terrorism and fanaticism helped fuel the fear that ended the man's life. Until we have a police force that is not afraid of us at a low but static level based on what we are, we will not be safe. Robin Garwood Seward _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
