Cooler heads in Spokane
The events in Ferguson, Missouri, make me thankful we live in Spokane. We have had our share of controversial police shootings, but no riots. If the policeman in Ferguson had been a black man, and the teenager white, it might have made page 3 in the (St. Louis) Post-Dispatch, especially if the teenager was a thug and a thief.
Apparently, when you reverse the ethnicity the game changes! I have black grandchildren, and I don’t know how to explain this dichotomy to them. I lived and worked in St. Louis and have seen the racial problems there. You won’t change people’s hearts and minds by rioting and looting; you only reinforce the stereotype. Hopefully, that community will find a way to heal and move forward.
Robert Cannata
Spokane