I live in one of the most liberal towns you'll find in the South. Carrboro boasts of socially progressive viewpoints and immense freedom for personal expression. No matter where I may fall on a given political issue, I enjoy being in Carrboro for what it is. Yet even in this hyper-liberal justice-oriented town, we have problems like this.
And, of course, just last week, there's been the uproar over the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, of all places. At first, it was easy to label the police officer as a racist. After all, Dr. Gates is a noble, respected, accomplished scholar. At the same time, the AP reported today that Officer Crowley was actually asked by an African-American police commissioner earlier in his career to educate police recruits on racial profiling. Barack Obama's comments on it certainly haven't helped those Americans looking for something to exacerbate. Of course, who knows what happened in the heat of the moment. What I think we can all assume is this. Both Dr. Gates and Officer Crowley seem to be honorable men. Yet, the tension surrounding race leads them both into stances of defensiveness against one another.
And what I realize is this. We are horribly defensive people. In our culture, there's no way this sort of thing gets reconciled, because we still struggle the concept of "I'm sorry." Especially in an issue so hotly contested but rarely addressed, the defenses go up hard and fast, and we are still miles and miles from paradise.
So yes, just another blog post admiring how far we've come, but lamenting how far we have yet to go. But it's easy to get caught up in the length of the trip, when actually the most rewarding thing is to enjoy your part in the journey. Sure, it makes a big stink when things like this bring light to our unfortunate circumstances. But when we make strides in our relationships, with our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, it becomes clear why it is worth struggling through the mess of reconciliation to get to the other side.
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