Fatal inaction: Deadly force by police on Black Americans has morphed into a curvature of the American soul.
Divided we stand, rooted in the past. It’s a history of symbols of traitors, slaveholders, and racist practices propelled through the decades into a distressful legacy.
Laws have been published and not enacted. A system of inferior education, swelling prison populations of black Americans, and inequitable hiring and pay standards – – the list is a multitude of systemic racism.
It starts in the womb. Black mothers have a considerably lesser opportunity to bring healthy children to life. Racism continues in a black child's educational path. Much more funds go to "good schools," meaning white schools, than "bad schools" nationwide.
In the same neighborhoods, a white homeowner’s property has more value than his black next door neighbor. If he’s a high school graduate and his black neighbor has a college degree, the white guy still will earn considerably more.
And when they go to the hospital, the healthcare system will value his care more than the black guy. Just ask any insurance actuary what happens when both are killed in auto accidents. In wrongful death suits, payouts are exponentially higher if the victim is white.
The wealth gap in America is growing for whites, and stagnant for Black Americans. Statistics bear out every assertion.
Yet, the institutional powers will never admit that they are part of systemic racism. Corporate America will talk day long about diversity and inclusion. But schools suspend black children disproportionately. Banks redline with impugnity. The news media shies away from divulging their own hiring practices. Police departments will say they view everybody the same.
Political leaders jump at every opportunity to proclaim that all men and women are created equally. America’s military leaders say they are a bastion of equal treatment -– yet black Americans receive more disciplinary punishment and far more undesirable and dishonorable discharges per capita than their white counterparts.
There is a curvature to America’s spinal cord, bent through years, indeed centuries of arthritic buildup of institutional racism.
Now a storm is gathering — and it may clear a path to national recovery or damnation. But this time, the shockwave may be too much to bear.
For my part, no matter my life of wartime military service, an award-winning career and accomplishment in the news media, and years as a college professor and federal employee, nonetheless I hold no value on the streets of America.
I can only hope — but I can no longer pray — that my grandchildren will fare better.
