Time to Say Goodbye

Here we are, wracked once again by violence, anger, sadness and confusion. And I, once again, have little to offer. Why should I? As much as we Americans love simple solutions – just build an app or invent a new machine! – certain problems are immune to simple solutions. If they were they would have already been solved and this disconnect between blacks and whites is certainly one of those type problems.

There is obviously a lot of angst, anxiety and anger in the country – and the world - that has been building for years. It seems, however, that this particular issue predates all that; it is certainly related but I think it’s different.

It’s clear that something is going on given the number of blacks that are being killed in officer related shootings. Statistics show that 509 people have been shot and killed by police so far in 2016. 95% were male and 24% are black. Keep in mind that roughly 13% of Americans are black. To say this disparity is strictly racial profiling seems to me to be incorrect. On the other hand, just by statistics, it seems impossible to conclude that profiling – or at least some different treatment than for whites – doesn’t exist either. How to resolve that I do not know; everyone seems to have different descriptions of the problems and therefore different solutions.   

Here’s what I do know: like so many problems the country faces, this one seems intractable and for the same reason; it’s like we live in the Tower of Babel. No one speaks the same language and that’s makes it pretty difficult to solve a common problem.

I think that’s because even though we are all Americans, it doesn’t mean we all live in the same country. I know, I know, other people much smarter than me have said much the same thing but it doesn’t make it any less true – we all live in our own little tribes (I refuse to use the term community.) For example, I am an older, white, middle class guy and my friends tend to be the same (most are richer and almost all are better golfers.) We all live in middle to upper middle class neighbor hoods and our children are doing okay. When I was younger, I still existed in pretty much the same bubble. I was born and raised in a small town Minnesota with nearly zero exposure to anyone who wasn’t just like me (except the rich kids who lived in the west end!) I was fortunate enough to spend many years in the military and spent lots of time around various minorities and got along famously. But even that was a tribe and the military tribe which, like police, is fairly insular and protective of itself regardless of race – as it often has to be.

An anecdote. Early in my time in the military, which was relatively shortly after the terrible riots and turmoil of the late sixties, we were required to attend race sensitivity training or something like that, and not once but several times. To this day, I have never met anyone who went through it, either black or white, who felt that this training did anything to improve their understanding or acceptance of people who were not like them. Now why do you think that is? It’s not from lack of good intentions but trying to “help’ people overcome tribal instincts of a lifetime is really hard. 

So we all live in our own little tribes and we presume that everyone else experiences life pretty much like us. The truth is, no matter who you are or what your tribe is, most others don’t live lives like yours. It doesn’t mean that many people can’t overcome their tribal instincts and really do have some empathy but a lot of us can’t - or won’t - for one reason or another.

So here I am today. I try, I really do, but I can’t even pretend to say that I really understand the life situation of people not in my tribe rather it’s race, sexuality or financial status. Oh, I understand intellectually and accept most of these things intellectually - but “walking a mile in their shoes?” That seems almost impossible despite my best efforts. If that makes me a bad man, then I’m a bad man but I am doing the best that I can. Is it possible that I'm the only one like that? 

So where does that leave us? Damned if I know. Just like abortion or gun control, racial issues are so deep seated and belief-based that common problem solving simply doesn’t seem to work. These are frustrating problems; we all know something isn’t right but tribal instincts of one type or another just seems to prevent us from addressing them.

Herbert Stein, a famous economist, once said, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." So here’s something else I know: it will stop. It may or may not be pretty but it will stop.

And I’m pretty sure it won’t stop with more hand wringing, finger pointing or singing kumbaya. 

In any event, like a lot of other things going on in the country, let’s hope we can figure this out before it stops with some sort of a revolution. 

I now relinquish the soap box to someone that may actually have some ideas and return to my usual cynicism.