we see race and racial differences yet consistently act in a positive, constructive way. It is easier to imagine a world in which we tolerate racial differences by being blind to them.
The uncomfortable truth, however, is that racial differences will always exist among us. Even if the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration were completely overcome, we would remain a nation of immigrants in a larger world divided by race and ethnicity. It is a world in which there is extraordinary racial and ethnic inequality, and our nation has porous boundaries. For the foreseeable future, racial and ethnic inequality will be a feature of American life.
This reality is not cause for despair. The idea that we may never reach a state of perfect racial equality—a perfect racial equilibrium—is not cause for alarm. What is concerning is the real possibility that we, as a society, will choose not to care. We will choose to be blind to injustice and the suffering of others. We will look the other way and deny our public agencies the resources, data, and tools they need to solve problems. We will refuse to celebrate what is beautiful about our distinct cultures and histories, even as we blend and evolve. That is cause for despair.
Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem. The fact that the meaning of race may evolve over time or lose much of its significance is hardly a reason to be struck blind. We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love. That was King’s dream—a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal worth fighting for.
Notes
Index
affirmative action; and black exceptionalism; and colorblindness; and minority police officers/police chiefs; and poor and working-class whites
Alexander v. Sandoval
All of Us or None
American Apartheid (Massey and Denton)
American Bar Association (ABA)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): class action lawsuit against California Highway Patrol; Drug Law Reform Project; Racial Justice Project
American Correctional Association
The American Dilemma (Myrdal)
The Anatomy of Racial Inequality (Loury)
Angelos, Weldon
Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1986/1988)
Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor (Davis)
Armstrong, Christopher Lee
Armstrong v. United States
Atwater v. City of Lago Vista
The Audacity of Hope (Obama)
Bacon’s Rebellion
Baldus, David, and Baldus study
Baldwin, James
Ball, Johnny Lee
Ban the Box campaigns
Banks, Tyra
Bascuas, Ricardo
Batson v. Kentucky
Beckett, Katherine
Bell, Derrick
Bennett, Lerone, Jr.
bias, racial: implicit/explicit (conscious/ unconscious); and plea bargaining; and prosecutors
Biden, Joe
“birdcage” metaphor and structural racism
black churches
black codes and vagrancy laws
black exceptionalism
Blackmon, Douglas
blaxploitation
Blumenson, Eric
Boggs Act (1951)
Bostick, Terrance
Boyd, Marcus
Braman, Donald
Brennan, Justice William
British Society for the Abolition of Slavery
Brown, James
Brown v. Board of Education
Bryant, Scott
Burton, Susan
Bush, George H.W.
Bush, George W.
Byrd, Robert
Byrne grant program
Cahill, Clyde
California Highway Patrol (CHP)
California v. Acevedo
California’s Proposition
California’s Proposition
Campbell, Richard
Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Carroll, David
Carrollton bus disaster (1988)
Cato Institute
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Chain Reaction (Edsall and Edsall)
Chemerinsky, Erwin
Cheney, Dick
Chicago, Illinois: ex-offenders; police presence in ghetto
The uncomfortable truth, however, is that racial differences will always exist among us. Even if the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration were completely overcome, we would remain a nation of immigrants in a larger world divided by race and ethnicity. It is a world in which there is extraordinary racial and ethnic inequality, and our nation has porous boundaries. For the foreseeable future, racial and ethnic inequality will be a feature of American life.
This reality is not cause for despair. The idea that we may never reach a state of perfect racial equality—a perfect racial equilibrium—is not cause for alarm. What is concerning is the real possibility that we, as a society, will choose not to care. We will choose to be blind to injustice and the suffering of others. We will look the other way and deny our public agencies the resources, data, and tools they need to solve problems. We will refuse to celebrate what is beautiful about our distinct cultures and histories, even as we blend and evolve. That is cause for despair.
Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem. The fact that the meaning of race may evolve over time or lose much of its significance is hardly a reason to be struck blind. We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love. That was King’s dream—a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal worth fighting for.
Notes
Index
affirmative action; and black exceptionalism; and colorblindness; and minority police officers/police chiefs; and poor and working-class whites
Alexander v. Sandoval
All of Us or None
American Apartheid (Massey and Denton)
American Bar Association (ABA)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): class action lawsuit against California Highway Patrol; Drug Law Reform Project; Racial Justice Project
American Correctional Association
The American Dilemma (Myrdal)
The Anatomy of Racial Inequality (Loury)
Angelos, Weldon
Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1986/1988)
Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor (Davis)
Armstrong, Christopher Lee
Armstrong v. United States
Atwater v. City of Lago Vista
The Audacity of Hope (Obama)
Bacon’s Rebellion
Baldus, David, and Baldus study
Baldwin, James
Ball, Johnny Lee
Ban the Box campaigns
Banks, Tyra
Bascuas, Ricardo
Batson v. Kentucky
Beckett, Katherine
Bell, Derrick
Bennett, Lerone, Jr.
bias, racial: implicit/explicit (conscious/ unconscious); and plea bargaining; and prosecutors
Biden, Joe
“birdcage” metaphor and structural racism
black churches
black codes and vagrancy laws
black exceptionalism
Blackmon, Douglas
blaxploitation
Blumenson, Eric
Boggs Act (1951)
Bostick, Terrance
Boyd, Marcus
Braman, Donald
Brennan, Justice William
British Society for the Abolition of Slavery
Brown, James
Brown v. Board of Education
Bryant, Scott
Burton, Susan
Bush, George H.W.
Bush, George W.
Byrd, Robert
Byrne grant program
Cahill, Clyde
California Highway Patrol (CHP)
California v. Acevedo
California’s Proposition
California’s Proposition
Campbell, Richard
Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Carroll, David
Carrollton bus disaster (1988)
Cato Institute
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Chain Reaction (Edsall and Edsall)
Chemerinsky, Erwin
Cheney, Dick
Chicago, Illinois: ex-offenders; police presence in ghetto
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