I read three articles this morning by three authors that are black americans.  All deploring the tragic deaths in Dallas, as well as the tragic deaths of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota this week.  One of the articles by Michael Dyson,  a professor of Sociology at George Town University called “Lament of a black American” was remarkable because it addresses America’s culture of divide, our “whiteness” ensuring that we see our way past the grievances and legitimate threats to black Americans as we our protected and cocooned in our social and economic opportunities.  A quote from the article is haunting… “You cannot know how we secretly curse the cowardice of whites who know what I write is true, but dare not say it. Neither your smug insistence that you are different — not like that ocean of unenlightened whites — satisfy us any longer. It makes the killings worse to know your disapproval of them has spared your reputations and not our lives.”

The second article I read was Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, “A tragedy beyond color”.  Robinson describes Dallas shootings as an act of terror, in ironically a city with a Mayor and Police Chief that have made remarkable strides in bringing the police and black communities together in constructive ways to deescalate situations and dramatically reduce police cases of excessive force.  One of the best examples according to many in the country.  The community of Black Lives Matter protesters turned out as a result in support of a police department that sought to protect and did interact productively with the protesters. ..”Such tragedy is beyond color” … In Dallas shows that people can unite and work together.  Robinson says “Poor, troubled , crime-ridden communities are those that most want and need effective policing. But the paradigm cannot be us versus them.  It has to be us with us — a relationship of mutual respect.”

The third article was by Leonard Pitts, Jr. a regular columnist in the Tampa Bay Times, who won a Pulitzer prize in 2004. He was on vacation on the Greek Island of Crete when he turned on the TV to hear about the Dallas terror.  From a distance and where he was at he writes “America has gone mad before; the cure wasn’t hate”.  He called his two sons from Crete, to tell them he loves them and to remind them that … “they terrorize people simply by being and plead with them to be careful” … Imagine that is the first thought and worry we would have  is to fear for how our children may be killed by a police officer simply because of their skin color.  Pitts goes on to write that America has gone mad before, in the 1960’s as those of us old enough remember the horrible riots and turmoil.  He went on to quote Bobby Kennedy in the aftermath of Dr. King’s murder… “My favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote, ‘And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.’ … “What we need is the United States is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and feeling of justice toward those who still suffer in our country”.

In 2008, I had great hope that Barack Obama’s election to our highest office would be a precursor to racism’s end, and I had pride in America and its people. I still believe that we are making progress, and we are a long way further down the road than 1968, but it appears that we still have quite a way to go.  I thought before I read these articles today that the violence we witnessed this week was the act of individuals acting out in the final throes of dying racism…. Or maybe more accurately I hoped it would be such, and the real issue was one of social, economic divide.  However, I think too I’m believing in an idealized version of America, as we hide in our enclave of “whiteness”.  I hope that over time we find that place of wisdom and compassion that over comes the emotion of fears and disassociation from the American Dream, and we come together in support of vast majority of great and effective police as well as support of the 40 million citizens of our country that feel threatened by the rest of us.