Fran,

Thank you so much for your comment.

I am in the hospital getting chemo and I have to type on my phone, so please pardon me if I cannot respond as fully as I would like.

1) I remember hearing the interview with James Baldwin, and I recall similar comments in "The Fire Next Time."

How can I answer for the failures of my country? And how can I defend the original sin of slavery, followed by Jim Crow, Black Codes, mass incarceration, etc.?
I surely cannot. Perhaps we can talk offline if you like.

2) I am so sorry to hear your pain, which I can only partially share. I know how I would feel if the police laid hands on my wife or my boys (my baby is mixed race and my adult son is white). I watched the George Floyd video and my baby boy toddled over, and I melted down inside. You're right, people see my younger son as Black, because that's just the way it is.

For any person reading this, regardless of your ethnicity, background, or country of origin, just imagine how you'd feel if the police acted brutally against your family and there was nothing you could do about it. How would you feel? What would you do?

Don't get me wrong: I respect the police and my dad was a probation officer in NYC for 35 years. But the pain is real and the need for change is urgent.

Fran, your son and mine are WORTH THE EFFORT. There is hope, and I pray we connect offline.

Sincerely,
Rob