OPINION:
There have been attempts at so-called dialogue about race in America. But if that dialogue starts with unspoken inequality, its results will not help race relations, but instead will cause them to increase. When the dialogue starts with the premises that all white people are racists and all black Americans are innocent subjects of their racism, it is a lie. When the government’s idea of equal justice is that all black Americans are committing crimes because they are poor, so let’s cut them a lot of slack, that is not equal justice. When a black American robs a white grocer and shoots at him to kill, then gets off in court with a slap on the wrist while the grocer lives with the debilitating results of a heart attack from being shot at, that is not equal justice.
If former President Obama wants to have an honest dialogue about race, he ought to start with me. I’ll tell him of the racism I have experienced many times in my life, and I will truly listen to his experiences of racism. Maybe with honesty (something often missing in government) real healing can take place. But if Mr. Obma’s idea of healing is getting “justice” for black Americans only, that is not honest.
MICHAEL T. BUTTNER
Forest Hill, Md.
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