Whiteness is blindness. It is the wish not to see what it will not know.
Michael Eric Dyson, Death in Black and White

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I live just north of the Dallas city limits (in Richardson). I teach at Eastfield College as a member of the adjunct faculty, in Mesquite, the home of the Dallas Police shooter. I teach a diverse group of students, and have had numerous conversations, with black students, Hispanic students, and white students, about to ongoing dilemma regarding racial divides in America.

I’ve read books on race issues for decades, and presented synopses for CitySquare of many of these books, for over a decade, at the Urban Engagement Book Club.

And I have no idea what to write regarding the current situation. It is simply so very painful, and sad, and seemingly unsolvable.

I heard Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Dian Rehm show this morning (audio and transcript will be available soon – click here). He basically said that, for now, there is really nothing to be done. He was making that case that this is a deep, abiding problem, and that the solution will have to bring genuine systemic difference (what we call, in other circles, a true paradigm shift); and it will take a very long time.

Of all the books I have read to try to understand the issue of race in America, I think Mr. Coates’ book, Between the World and Me, was the most true and the most disturbing. (Read my blog post about this book here: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me – My Four Lessons and Takeaways).

I write this simply to say that in the Dallas area, and across our country, we think about the death of the five police officers. And across the country, we think about the pain and loss of so many families; especially African American famiies.

It is a time to weep
It is a time to mourn
And, maybe, it is a time to finally, genuinely, put our best thoughts and efforts into some path forward…