Wednesday, August 20, 2014

the dream.

an ongoing discussion/moment of clarity.


words.

"...The riots in Ferguson follow a period of setback for African-Americans, despite the fact that we have a sitting black president in the White House.

 ...The urban riots of the second half of the 1960s prompted Washington to pump out money, legislation, judicial decisions and regulatory change to outlaw de jure discrimination, to bring African-Americans to the ballot box, to create jobs and to vastly expand the scope of anti-poverty programs.

Civil unrest also drew attention to the necessity of addressing police brutality.

Today, however, political and policy-making stasis driven by gridlock — despite a momentary concordance between left and right on this particular shooting — insures that we will undertake no comparable initiatives to reverse or even stem the trends that have put black Americans at an increasing disadvantage in relation to whites — a situation that plays no small part in fueling the rage currently on display in Ferguson."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Ferguson, Watts and a Dream Deferred

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