Remember, in the Democratic afterglow of Barack Obama’s presidential election, when there were references, however tentative, to “post-racial America”?
Of course, even the most idealistic among us suspected naiveté, but an historic election is a reminder that time does march on and times do change.
Now we look back eight years, and we don’t just see misplaced hope and racist politics, but sobering delusion. We’re back to the ’60s when Watts was torched and “Burn, baby, Burn” was the rallying cry. Whether the president is Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon or Barack Obama, America’s racial cauldron, we keep being reminded, remains on societal broil, now graphically abetted by cell phone video.
So, instead of Newark or Detroit as memes for racial unrest, we now have Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island, Baton Rouge, St. Paul–and Dallas as synonymous with racial killings. And the president, an eloquent, empathetic African American, has now morphed into America’s Grief Counselor-in-Chief.
Maybe before he leaves office, President Obama will cut to the racial-reality chase and rhetorically lay it out like it needs to be laid out. He could channel Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech as precedent. His Dallas memorial-service remarks–in the company of his predecessor, George W. Bush–were moving and articulate. But at some point before Friday, January 20, 2017, it should sound something like this:
“My fellow Americans, black and white, police officers and private citizens:
“To be candid, I’m weary of ‘thoughts and prayers’ mourning rhetoric. Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with victims and their families, regardless of color, regardless of status. It goes without saying, but here I am again saying it. We can do better than consoling after the fact.
“What we’ve seen recently in Dallas–as well as in Louisiana and Minnesota is as tragic as it is unconscionable. We’re killing our own. Surely, we’re better than this. Surely.
“It is also symptomatic of something that can never be effectively addressed unless we have a collective, come-to-Jesus conversation about who we are, how we got here and what’s been going on for too long. Well, I have the bully pulpit for a few more months.
“There will always be outliers among us; it’s human nature. But if they are in–of all places–a police department, that can be lethal for a society. One undertrained, rogue cop–who can’t be best-practices proactive and professional instead of worst-case stereotyping and overactive–is one too many. Such renegades are a small minority, to be sure, but they do exist–and they can have disproportional, catastrophic consequences throughout society.
“The purpose of policing is to protect a community, not to occupy it. To the overwhelming majority of brave, caring police officers who put the ultimate on the line every day for the rest of us, I say thank you yet again for what you do. But I also say this: Police your own ranks. You know who among you doesn’t belong. That reflects on you, however unfairly. More to the point, such elements are ticking bombs within the department and the communities they police.
“And part of protecting a community is to know it. Not just know of it and its criminal side. Communication and respect go both ways. It helps if you meet people other than when you are questioning or arresting them. You have to connote more than an armed-guard presence. It’s in your own interest, literally, to be trusted.
“Now to the community.
“Guns and gangs and no-snitch cultures need to be acknowledged as much as police profiling, blatant racism and intolerable treatment of those who happen to be black at the wrong place and wrong time. Poverty and less-than-the-best schools are factors in–but not causes of–criminal behavior. When black dystopia makes stereotyping too easy, it’s time for a community to get self-servingly honest about what it’s projecting.
“This is about both the police and the community being accountable. It must work both ways. No political correctness. No demonizing.
“As to the activists out there–and I used to be one–you have an important role. Society needs you. But don’t abuse it. “No Justice, No Peace” is a form of extortion. Such zero-sum signage is counterproductive.
“Black Lives Matter” comes from a good place, but it sounds hypocritical in the insidious context of black-on-black crime rates that dwarf all other murder demographics. All lives matter–without hierarchies.
“Look, this can’t be seen as another de facto white establishment, knee-jerk reaction to current events and ad hoc, societal anger and anguish. And it can’t appear to be a black community playing nothing but a victim card. That’s what it’s always looked like through our racial lenses.
“This has to be all stakeholders, i.e., all Americans, in the conversation–and involved in the solution. That doesn’t happen until we all agree that there’s plenty of societal blame to be shared, too much societal benefit to leave unrealized and not much time to finally fix it.
“And one more thing. The sniper who murdered those five Dallas police officers had a small arsenal, including an assault weapon, at home. If we can’t re-ban such weapons, it means too many gutless politicians are choosing their party, their pandering ideology and their political futures over their fellow Americans–from Sandy Hook to Orlando to Dallas.
“Thank you, and may God bless the uniquely diverse United States of America and help us help ourselves to live up to our ideals.”