Fifty
years ago this summer, President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Back then, it was reasonable to expect
that by 2014, America would be a fully integrated nation in which
equality prevailed. But as the events in Ferguson, Mo., dramatize,
the country still resembles what a presidential commission
described in 1968: “two societies, one black, one
white— separate and unequal.”
There is a big difference in the routine experiences of the two
races. White teens have little fear of police, but black teens
generally view them with mistrust. A 2013 Gallup poll found that 24
percent of young black males said they have been treated badly by
cops because of their race just in the past 30
days.
In conversations with black high school students in Chicago who
have visited the Tribune, I’ve been struck by two things. The first
is how hard it is for them to navigate their lives in violent
neighborhoods plagued by gangs.
The second is how negatively they regard cops. Being stopped and
frisked is a common experience for the boys. They are acutely aware
that encounters with police can be humiliating, dangerous, and even
fatal.
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1pxQAZV
via IFTTT