STATESIDE STORIES: Racial Relations in the U.S.A.

By Mary Foran
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There are two good outcomes about the latest sad news on race relations in the United States.

These are, amid marches and protests, and memorials for the victims of police-involved shootings, and suspected retaliation from snipers, there is a wave of National Remorse and the beginnings of National Dialogue.

While the Stars and Stripes are at half-staff for the victims of violence and their grieving families, President Barack Obama is cutting short meetings in Warsaw, Poland, stopping off to meet with King Felipe VI in Spain, on his way to Dallas, TX, to lend support to the police victims and their families, and mitigate the protesters anger.

ABC Town Hall on race and policing, 16 July 2016: President Obama hugs Eliana and Malana Pinckney, daughters of Rev. Clementa Carlos Pinckney of the South Carolina Senate, who was killed in the 2015 Charleston Church shooting. Their mother Jennifer Pinckney looks on.

Both Black and White parents are now having “The Talk” with their driving-age children about how to behave properly if they are stopped by police for any reason: hands on the wheel, no sudden movements, and follow instructions.

The American Police, on the other hand, are learning restraint, and Departments are beginning to recognize bias and precipitation. There is a whole new generation of police officers in the works, as there is a whole new generation of the populace.

In this country of Immigrants, it is not just a question of Black and White, although that is what is garnering most of the headlines and News Coverage. Every ethnic group wants recognition, fairness and Justice. A plurality of peoples make up the fabric of America.

Immigration Reform rally downtown Seattle 23 June 2010. Protesters seek legalization and a humane path to US citizenship for the undocumented, following the passage of the controversial law in Arizona allowing the police to detain anyone suspected of being in the States illegally.

What is known as the “Silent Majority” usually doesn’t take to the streets to protest, but goes to work and back, listens to Radio News or catches a little TV news before or after work, and shakes heads at what this world is coming to, worrying about tax increases, the economy and the National Debt!

That would most certainly ruin statistical analyses and clinch the old American concept of the “Melting Pot”, which has somehow gotten lost in modern times!