The complexity of the issues discussed in this week’s reading, Chapter Eight of the CQ reader, likely cause it to be one of the most important issues spoken about in the CQ, as its affects result in many of the other issues spoken of in other chapters.  It is fascinating, however, to consider that our country has gone through at least two periods in which the issues being discussed were specifically targeted, and we still have managed to fail to solve them to any acceptable extent, those periods being the reconstruction era of the 1860’s-1870’s, and the Great Society of President Johnson and onwards.

In considering why we as a country have failed to adequately address these issues, I found it fascinating that a lack of consensus is able to be reached amongst any community, be in the Black versus White community, or even amongst the Black community themselves.  To this end, it is quite possible our lack of movement in any direction towards affecting positive change is a direct result of political ideology and affiliation, as seen through the ideas of the leadership of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives, who espouse Conservative ideology while parting with solutions often proposed to alleviate the symptoms of poverty, such as a higher minimum wage or increased funding for the impoverished. As these issues, such as the wealth gap and the poverty level, are intimately related to our countries problem with race relations, the fact of our inability to work together across party lines in regards to other topics, such as taxation and the minimum wage, does not bode well in my mind for progress in regards to race relations.

While education is oftentimes thrown around as the solution to the interactions between the police and minority communities, I am of the belief that this will have little effect at all on these interactions.   Obviously, for one reason or another, the police are not comfortable enforcing the laws within certain neighborhoods. Furthermore, the I doubt the average police officer is leaving his house in the morning with the intention of murdering an unarmed African American boy.  As such, while there is certainly merit to the idea of increasing education, as this is always a valuable commodity, efforts must be made to ensure that the police grow more comfortable policing within the neighborhoods that they evidently are not currently comfortable doing so.  And the most logical way to do this, in my mind, is to alleviate the necessities, if currently in place, for minority communities to partake within suspicious behavior that has caused the police to grow uncomfortable around them.

As for an increase in education specifically, there is no question that an effort must be made to reduce the gap between funding provided for whites and minority groups.  This is not to say sacrificing the education of white children for that of minority children, but rather a reform in the educational and budgetary system, so that all children are provided for.  And frankly, with the amount of money being thrown around, some true effort must be made, or this money is simply being wasted.

So to conclude my thoughts on the issue of race relations within our illustrious nation, it too plays back into larger issues which we, as a nation, have seemingly been unable to address in the past.  This inability is not necessarily for lack of desire, although that may well be a portion of the problem, but also a seeming inability to reach a consensus of agreement that does not necessitate a complete reversal of policy after a maximum eight years of a Presidency.