I think institutional racism is the part that good hearted people just don't get, Azizi. Because they, and most folks they know, aren't overtly racist, they delude themselves into thinking that it isn't there. If all things are equal, folks, no matter if you cut them by race, shoe size, religion, or color of hair, should appear in the various strata of society (jobs, housing, level of education, jail,etc) in roughly the same percentages they appear in the population. One need only look at the numbers for people of color to understand that we have a problem. The racist makes the argument for genetic and intellectual inferiority. But these morons have a short view of history. In the last two centuries on this continent, as well as the last 9 centuries in Europe, it was variously the Irish, Germans, Italians, Polish, etc., that were accused of the same. One still sees the remnants of institutional bias, and its effects on all segments of society, in the North of Ireland. One can say it ain't so till skippy comes home, but the numbers tell the story. We are wasting the precious potential of a large segment of our youth, and dooming our society, by refusing to see that this exists and MUST be dealt with.

The African descended peoples deal with an additional burden. My own folks could hide, or "pass", in order to be successful. We changed the spellings on our names, and hid our ethnicity. But one cannot hide the color of their skin. And so it went on and on. It is germane that I just this past few minutes walked in from having lunch in the local restaraunt. I live in a very rural and white part of West Michigan. I group of young men walked in, and one was a young African American kid. I found myself thinking what a great looking kid he was, but you should have seen the guarded looks. And he was aware of it. Now, I know some of these folks, and they aren't bad folks, and probably weren't even aware that they were making him uncomfortable. But it was clear what was going on. The moment for that young man was difficult.

Mick