Rants Log-in | Search Rants | Account Info

ATTITUDE and ASSUMPTION
Involving
POLICE, PROFESSORS and PRESIDENTS

The Black-White racial divide in this part of the world dates from 1619. It was expanded until the middle of the 20th century, when legal and social attempts finally began to effectuate a closing of that gap. Considering the centuries it took to open so wide a gulf, the half-century’s progress in attempting to briddge it has been heroic, but insufficient for the job at hand.

At the beginning of the 21st century, we come upon a most improbable demonstration of how uneven has been our manifold attempts to close so wide a gap: A Black college professor, steeped in racial lore, who just happens to be a friend of the Black POTUS, has a confrontation with a White police sergeant who was appointed by a Black sduperintendent of police to teach racial sensitivity at the police academy. The confrontation is one that has played out over the centuries. It is a combination of color, attitude and assumption. Throughout the expansion of this gap and the attempts at closing it — apart from the visible,surface elements involved – there always has existed the unstated, the unnamed: “attitude” and “assumption” on the part of the players involved.

Where does this leave us? I do not know. We have dealt with the superficial. Apparently, the sub rosa will have to take care of itself.