So I've been compulsively reading the comment sections of articles dealing with race, politics and current events (Zimmerman trial, voting rights act, racial tensions, etc) on various websites. This is a bad idea, I know, since it seems online anonymity provokes the worst elements of glib, hateful and cowardly expression. But I did it and now I'm stuck with the cognitive repercussions of what I saw. I've had enough vodka to realize that I've got to let this out if it's going to go away (the racial anxiety, not the vodka), so I'm about to engage in some pretty heavy-duty generalizing based of a pretty small sample population. Not the most rigorous application of method, but my primary intellectual foes don't believe in science, people. A person gets lazy...

American Blacks and Whites (self identified) have SEVERELY different opinions and assumptions regarding the history, cultural psychology, and economic functions of their country and it's various inhabitants.

Blacks seem to forget that there are narratives playing out in America beyond that of "Black and White", and that there are plenty of places on Earth where minorities have less protection against capricious majorities than they do here. The American Constitution is not perfect, but it's a damned sight better than most nations'.

In order to solicit sympathy, which seems to be a perennial objective of some voices, there most be reciprocity and a willingness to be at least empathic in return. Blacks have a long, hard history with America, but so do many others. Just ask your Native American friends. Oh, you don't have any? Hmm....

Whites seem to be in a bubble where the historical facts and the evidence on the ground are less important than clinging to an unsupportable cultural narrative about hard work and reward, as if engineered social leverage had nothing to do with their advance as a whole. News Flash...the entire structure of American society for most of its existence has been de facto affirmative action for Europeans. Get over yourself and get into history.

In other words, neither group is dealing with history or current affairs in a mature way, opting to wade in shallows of ignorance rather than dive into depths of understanding. I don't know if Mr. Zimmerman is guilty or innocent, or if I am going to have to organize against anti-voting measures as generations before me had to do, or if I am going to be stopped and frisked when I move back to New York (Mayor Bloomberg recently said that too many whites were being stopped). I do know that proclamations of the death of racism are premature, and that those of us with ties across racial boundaries must take it upon ourselves to further substantive and conciliatory dialogue. No one else seems capable.