THOMAS: The race narrative

In just the last few days, two African-American men were shot and killed by non-African-American police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana and five non-African-American police officers were shot and killed in Dallas by an African-American man who declared he “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” The gap in our racially divided country has never been wider.

Immediately, familiar narratives came into play. The narrative for some African-Americans appears to reinforce the belief that racism and discrimination are responsible for whatever difficulties they face. For some whites recent events seem to reinforce the narrative, seen on local news, that African-Americans are violent criminals, welfare cheats or liberal politicians out for themselves instead of others.