[lbo-talk] zimmerman not guilty

[michael yates]

Marv Gandall said what I believe to be true. Thanks for saying it. People who harped about it not being 1957 (an obvious and unremarkable point to make) now cry tears for Trayvon Martin and say what a racist society we live in. Yes, we do. If you know anything at all about this country, you know that race, and yes, racism, are still flashpoints here. It is foolish to present data on the improvement in black college graduation rates compared to whites, going back to 1970, and then not do the same for incarceration and post incarceration rates for blacks and whites. Saying instead that incarceration rates are falling, slowly. Wow, that is really something. It is, indeed, a less racist society than it used to be, but racism is alive and well among millions of people here. And greater equality, better employment policies, national healthcare, will not end this. Race-specific actions and policies are and will be needed. Ask a question: do you think there is a black person in the US who hasn't experienced a race-specific degradation? And knows it too. Isn't that more important than bashing Tim Wise?