Suddenly Becoming Color Blind

A YOUNG AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE is gunned down by a European American police officer, the African American community stages protests, liberal European America seems to side with the protesters, while conservative Euro America justifies the slaying. Can there be a trace of truth in both viewpoints? According to conservative America, the police officer was acting in self defense, and according to liberal America, it was unnecessary to fire six shots into the young man's body. Would a stun gun have worked as well in the officer's defense? According to one conservative talk radio host, the young victim was not unarmed, because by instigating an altercation with the officer, the young man was attempting to arm himself, because he was a threat to gain access to the officer's weapon. This might be a bit of a stretch. Instances of white police officers killing young black males, say the conservatives, are relatively rare. But perhaps even one is many. The big picture is that after a quarter millennium of enslavement, and a hundred more years of inferior treatment, there is a tendency on the part of Afro-Americans to distrust Euro American authority, since such authority was responsible for the enslavement and inferior treatment. We are all the the victims and recipients of our history. How suddenly our modern conservatives become color blind!