Have you ever been called a racist?  Maybe not. But you should have been.  We are all racist to some degree. Blacks today live in places with the worst schools, the worst health care, and the worst jobs; the facts rammed home by covid-19, that whenever America suffers misfortune, black America suffers most.

Police are there to keep a lid on poor areas and to safeguard the suburban white communities. There have been calls to Defund the police department.  This does not mean a complete elimination of the department, rather to re-organize and add social workers to help police when a case requires more immediate help on the front line.  This means part of the police budget would fund social workers to soften and handle the stickie situation.

Camden, New Jersey’s police department was so broken and violent it was disbanded in 2013. By training Camden officers to defuse confrontation, not seek it, and by making them accountable whenever they use force has transformed the police force.  Officers now flash the peace sign to citizens and they flash it back. The murder rate, which was one of the worst in the country per capita, dropped 80% and officers are now respected and not feared.

James Baldwin wrote in the 1960’s, “racism compromises, where it does not corrupt, all the American efforts to build a better world-here, there, or anywhere.”  We, Whitey, need to change. Black Lives Do Matter.