Many long years ago, I was one of those irritating hippie chicks who marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam war. I burned with rage at the oppression I saw in our country, which held itself out as a bastion of freedom. And then....?
Yesterday, after the announcement of the verdict in the trial of a BART policeman for killing a young black man, I had to wonder. Riot police were in place in Oakland before the verdict was announced, when it was already known that the verdict would be either voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. Churches and the governor were calling for calm. Everyone imagined an explosion of rioting. People went home early to get past the expected areas of violence before the announcement.
And then....pft! Sure there was some vandalism and some arrests. But was the expectation of full-scale riots a vestige of racism? I wonder....
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