How To Have A National Conversation On Race
The Trayvon Martin case has reignited a national conversation on race, with writers, bloggers and pundits all weighing in on racial profiling and the inequities in the criminal justice system. But social commentator Mychal Denzel Smith argues that such debates fail and they do little to further understanding and end racism. Instead, he writes, constant, informed dialogue is needed. What do you think is necessary to have in order for conversations on race to be effective?
It happens after every major news story involving race, and we fail miserably as a nation every time. We now find ourselves asking questions about the lives of young black men — including the lessons that black parents hand down to their sons about how to move in the world that finds them suspicious — and, to a lesser degree, about the perceptions we all hold of black men. While that may sound as if we’re on the right track, given how much experience we have already had with unarmed black men being gunned down for no reason, it raises the question: Why don’t we know the answers yet?
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