Has it escaped your attention Anniebach that being a black American and being a white American leads to very different outcomes in almost every area of public life? To a lesser extent, I believe the same can be said about the UK.
So, you can say:
Black people are, by nature, more prone to anti-social, criminal and violent behaviour and because of this they are likely to require more rigorous monitoring and restraint;
Some black people engage in anti-social and criminal behaviour and turn to violence if they are apprehended but the actions of individuals should not define a whole group and if a black person is suspected of wrongdoing he or she should be treated in the same way as anyone else;
Some white people, and that includes those who administer the law, whether consciously or unconsciously, have a stereotypical - or even racist - view of black people. They may respond to incidents involving black people in a different way from incidents involving white people. There is sometimes mistrust on both sides, but an unnecessarily confrontational and heavy handed approach reinforces fear and mistrust.
Unless a person actually believes that black people are intrinsically morally and intellectually inferior to white people, it is, I think, reasonable to conclude that there is something about white society that discourages or prevents black people from participating fully at all levels of commercial and public life. The fact that it happens - and has been proved to happen - either causes resentment and mistrust and a corresponding unwillingness to comply with the rules of a society from which a person feels alienated, or it creates a sense of hopelessness, apathy and a lack of aspiration.
The history of what happened to black people also cannot be discounted. People who have a history of being seized and taken to various countries to be cruelly exploited and brutalised - their identities, language and culture forcibly erased - are marked by that history. Slave owners were richly compensated for the loss of their substantial incomes but the slaves who lost everything - their country, their names, their freedom - were ignored. Then they see these exploiters celebrated in history, statues erected and glowing tributes attached.
There was a news item the other night about Jack Leslie, a reportedly brilliant black football player who was denied the chance to play for England because he was not white. After a successful career, he ended up in the boot room of West Ham United cleaning the boots of up and coming players.
We have many talented and articulate black football players in this country yet still they are severely under-represented at senior level. This is just one example. Would you not feel angry if you were black?
that'll teach me to spout my thoughts on GN!
