Integrate Institutions

AMERICA is struggling yet again with the perennial scourge of racism as tension reigns in a mid-western city. Cincinnati spent a third night under curfew following a week of racial tension ignited by the killing of a black teenager. The youth was shot dead by a White policeman who thought that he was reaching for a weapon in an alley. The teenager, who was unarmed but running away, was the fourth young black crime suspect to be killed by the city's police in five months. Social relations have been tainted by the race factor since America came to be. The nation itself was founded on the slave labour of Africans; aboriginal Americans lost social and economic status in largely racist policies. Though the US has made significant progress, with the most outstanding achievements being the abolition of slavery in 1865 and the strengthening of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, racist tendencies still persist in some minds and institutions. Through a combination of historical and social factors, blacks tend to be the most disadvantaged, and therefore most prone to resorting to crime. This has stigmatised black communities, especially in poor inner city areas where they are most likely to live. The police does have a legitimate interest in monitoring these places, but the approach and the attitude have often been wrong. The police's aggressive attitude that often results in a take-no-prisoners approach requires review. But there is also a need to understand the dynamics of black society. The authorities would do well with using policemen who have grown up in these communities for patrol. But it would obviously call for either fully integrated forces or special quotas in the ranks to fulfill this strategic approach. Ends