I'm going to drop this here...

[OneGrassRoot]

135. Certainly things have changed...

Most people will acknowledge that, though there is much more to be done in the realm of justice and equality.

Yet even for the wealthiest of black persons, they are still much, much more likely than a white person to be profiled while driving, while shopping, etc., as just two examples of the prejudice that continues to manifests.

It isn't only the overt experiences of abuse and deaths of unarmed young black people at the hands of police officers -- it's the daily insults and the demoralizing and sometimes dehumanizing situations and systems. Seeing what is happening all around especially in this day of social media, including the horrific violence in many cities like Chicago, makes many black people feel as though black lives don't matter in this society -- and that can spill over into treating one another as though their lives don't matter, such as with the gang violence.

I think I and others have tried to have this discussion with you before, and why I tend to cringe at the mere thought of having these interactions with you, to be perfectly honest.

There is too much to unpack re: your "black on black crime" comment, but I'm sure you've heard it all before anyway.

Anyway, it's the multigenerational trauma and oppression -- the redlining in the 50's leading to decades of housing segregation and the creation of impoverished areas have implications RIGHT NOW. The way black men have been incarcerated for drug charges at rates much, much higher than white men for the same crime is a huge factor in the struggles of AA communities RIGHT NOW.

As for the white supremacist language, I think the entire discussion of race relations could use a new lexicon, or at least an honest exploration of these terms and what they truly mean to most people -- today, in 2015. The words themselves absolutely get in the way of meaningful dialogue.