In the mid 20th century wealthier whites moved out of the inner city then carved off the parts of the city with more tax revenues. They added those areas to their suburban cities which left lower income blacks with poor cities. This causes great frustration to see neighboring towns with better schools and better opportunity. Blacks were born into this and grew up with this.
Children don’t know why others are better off, they just know they are black and the others are white. This type of inequality has led to unrest for hundreds of years . So when a policeman kills a black person it can trigger the release of the pent up frustration. Even when the officer is justified to use deadly force, residents may react by transferring their anger about their circumstances to the officer and the police.
This is unfair to the officer but the blacks have been living with unfairness all their lives. Their hearts and their emotions are moving them. Thus emotional wisdom is just as important as rational wisdom in this situation. We need to empathize with people’s pain before we can judge.
So the specific lesson is that we need to avoid impoverishing people when city boundaries are drawn. And we need to rectify the past when it is still damaging people. Perhaps one solution to repairing the damage is to provide more vocational training in the high schools so blacks can lift up their towns.
And taking Abraham Lincoln’s advice and putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes.
