What you say is absolutely true, Greg F., but it's just not the particular aspect I was focusing on, that's all. I was focusing on the provocative role the media plays, and they are constantly looking for "racism" issues to get people all worked up about whether or not it is relevant to the circumstannces in question. And many individuals are also doing that, because they have a grudge of some sort about it. They're "playing the race card", as the expression goes, because it's a very good way of manipulating other people and really getting lots of media attention.

That's the problem I was alluding to...playing the race card in an exaggerated and provocative fashion...and there's been an epidemic of that in the last few decades.

But as you say: "the problem is that so many people are in denial about the existence and persistence of racism in the U.S.- both the in-your-face redneck variety, and the more subtle institutionalized, inherited variety- and its consequences."

Yes. That is another problem, and a very big one, but it's not the problem I was alluding to in my post. It's a different problem.

They are both very big problems at present.

*****

Now as to Bob Dylan...is it really surprising that someone found his appearance "suspicious"? No. ;-) He often looks sort of like he was "dragged through a hedge backwards", to quote an amusing expression I heard somewhere in regards to Dylan, and people usually figure that someone who looks like that looks a bit suspicious, specially if he's sort of loitering around staring at houses. On the other hand, Dylan paints. He likes painting old buildings. So he probably sometimes loiters around staring at them since it could give him ideas for his next painting. Besides, why not stare at buildings if you find them interesting? Most people are so driven with whatever they're on their way "to do" all the time that they have precious little inclination or thought to take time to look at anything around them unless it's quite unusual in some way. Creative artists are more inclined to observe things without having any specific overt reason to do so.

These are some of the risks of being a creative human being in a largely unconscious society....you seem like an oddball to many people, but you're just doing what's normal for you. ;-D

That's why that cop couldn't figure why I'd gone out for a liesurely walk to no particular objective at midnight. It just did not compute in his little mental book of "normality", because it didn't involve "doing" anything, it didn't lead anywhere, and it wasn't a popular form of recreation he could relate to.

If I'd been deer hunting, with all the right equipment...THAT he would have understood. I would then have been "doing something".

If people can't figure out what it is that you're "doing", then they get suspicious.

Taoism involves mastering "non-doing" as a way of attaining inner peace and awareness. I'd talk about it here at length if I thought it would do any good....but... Heh! Well, maybe another time...