Black Killings By Police... What's the source?

[Oscar Carter]

"What is it that has or would have police disproportionally treating "Black" people unfairly and worse (killing them) and not other groups generally labeled "minority;" e.g. immigrants or other groups labeled other than "White?"

Can you answer that question?  (Comment Below)

I do not have an answer. 

I have been asking this question of friends, relatives and in 2 facebook groups over the past week and Thanksgiving weekend since the no-indictment decision in Ferguson, Missouri.  Perhaps, 10 or 12 people have responded to the question.  Their responses generally fit within the following statements. 

1. I don't know.
2. "Black" people are viewed by "White" people as dangerous, threatening and physically more powerful. They are therefore feared.  One stated just consider the numbers of "Blacks" that exceed "Whites" in numbers and performance in just about every sport.
3. "Black" people themselves are fearful of "White" people.
4. It is in "Black" people's DNA that has them fall victim to society.

These responses are my interpretation of how mostly "Black" people have responded and they may not be entirely accurate.  I believe, however, I captured the essence of their responses.  I have received little response from "White" people all of whom were introduced to the question in the two facebook groups and they either have not responded or did not see it.  One "White" person stated silence was the answer referencing an article Robert Kennedy wrote while traveling in Apartheid South Africa in 1966. (See Article Here)

I got the impression when I started off asking the question, folks felt I was testing them and that I was looking for my answer. 

I have no answer.

There is a follow up question I have asked when people answered with either of the responses above from 2-4.  The follow up question was:

If I were to line up 100 people in front of you, with the darkest they knew or didn't know on one end and the lightest, white or absent of color on the other end and in between a gradient variance in color of everybody else, could they point point out which ones were "Black."

One person said they could.  My response to them was I would love to see them prove that to me some day.  Since everyone else stated they could not I am going with the majority that it generally can not be done.

A couple people were curious to know what is my point.  What am I attempting to accomplish?

My response was and is, I am looking to generate a conversation about people's biases excluding "racial" biases.  Please allow me to explain.

I know of only one case in this country that came close to a valid conversation about "race" and the issues related to it.  The one exception was the speech, then Senator Barack Obama made in Philadelphia entitled "A More Perfect Union," March 18, 2008.  That speech alone titled the electorate causing him to win the Democratic nomination for President in my judgement.

I stated above that now President Obama's speech "came close" to a valid conversation about "race."  However, it too fell short for two reasons.  One, it was not an actual conversation of course.  It was a presentation although I applaud him for expressing the general sentiments "Black"and "White" Americans have relative to "race."  With a "White" mother and "Black" father I think that qualified him well to convey their separate and distinct sentiments. 

There is another flaw and it is paramount to having a legitimate conversation relative to the innumerable biases people have and hold steady in society.

To have a conversation with a goal towards people having respect for all, the term "race" must to be eliminated.  It does not exist. There is no common understanding or agreement on what it means.  It is a word that has be "socially constructed" that needs to be "socially destructed."  Only then, can there possibility be a conversation to rid society of not only so named "racial" biases but all biases.

For six or seven years, I have been engaging folks in a conversation for Creating A World Community.  The idea of respecting all is a fundamental basis for that conversation.

I invite your participation at Creating A World Community

Oscar Carter
World Transformer