Friday, July 19, 2013

Can America's 'Race Problem' Be Solved?

Wasn't Barack Obama's election as president supposed to herald the emergence of a "post-racial" America?
Two recent incidents strongly suggest the answer is "no." First, Paula Deen's life and career were devastated after she admitted that, decades ago, in private and after being robbed at gunpoint, she used the "N"-word.
(There are two "crimes" in America that evidently do not have a statute of limitations. The first is Murder 1. The other seems to be saying the "N"-word [if you're white].)
Second, the civil rights industry's reaction to a jury's verdict that George Zimmerman was innocent in the death of Trayvon Martin also illustrates how race still divides America.
The turmoil surrounding Deen's travails and Zimmerman's show trial implies that race relations in America are more polarized than at any time since jury nullification freed O. J. Simpson in 1995.

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