A Reluctant Comment on the Trayvon Martin Case

I guess I will comment, briefly, on the reaction to the Trayvon Martin case and jury’s verdict in it.

First, in response to those who say we need a national conversation about race, at times it seems like race is all we are talking about.  Maybe instead of talking about race all the time, we should be quiet about it for a while.  We have, after all, elected, and re-elected, a black President.  We also have Hispanic senators and Indian governors, all elected by majority white electorates.  That’s pretty good.

Some people feel bad they need to have talks with their sons, talks that they never thought they would have to have.  But while upper middle class parents have one conversation, parents who live in the gang killing fields in Chicago have to have another.  In many ways, those conversations are sadder.

The President talks about black men “walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars.”  I understand that can be disconcerting, but I also know that statistically Asian ladies are less likely to do things that could be stopped by locking car doors.

A final comment:  Sometimes sores heal faster when they are not constantly rubbed.