It’s happened again. It’s all too familiar and I’ve wondered whether things will ever change. Will there ever come a day within my lifetime when black people in the United States will no longer have to fear an untimely death at the hands of those who should be a source of protection?

During the past year we have been hard hit by the stories that came across our news feeds. It’s unfortunate that I cannot say that we were shocked, but only that we’ve been hit. One of the greatest misfortunes of the United States in 2014 is that we can still expect a number of Black Americans to die violently in racially motivated circumstances each year. As the porch killing of nineteen year-old Renisha McBride shows us, this includes black women as well as men, though traditionally black men face the brunt of this kind if violence. Ms McBride, also unarmed, was killed when she came to the home of Theodore Wafer for help after crashing her car near his home.

Recently an unarmed black man was murdered in the New York City borough of Staten Island by a NYPD officer who strangled him in broad daylight though —as I already mentioned— he was unarmed, with his hands raised in surrender, and though NYPD officers are not allowed to use chokeholds.

Some argue that the media is sensationalizing and drawing more attention to these events, which attributes to our perception of the frequency and severity of these types of occurrences. Sensationalized or not, the fact is that these incidents have occurred and are still occurring. These cases have been electrifying because at the very heart of the issue is the matter of race and the role that race plays in America for better or for worse. The United States has in its history and makeup vile strands of racial inequity and discord. My hope is that these strands, rather than being of the nature of DNA are instead more like weaving yarn. Though we cannot now undo the rich, yet flawed tapestry of our past, perhaps we may find a way to correct ourselves going further.

One will eventually come to the question “Why?” Why is it that Blacks in the US — one of the greatest nations on earth— have yet to emerge from the violent shadow of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and Jim Crow. In particular, why are black men beaten and gunned down in our streets by white men who wield guns and —all too often— badges? I would like to find a nicer and more comfortable way to phrase that question, but I think it would be a misuse of my time and yours. Why must the thought come to my mind that although two of my brothers, my uncles and cousins serve or have served in the US Armed Forces, only the great grace of the Almighty keeps them from becoming another Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown. That last sentence was actually difficult for me to write because I do not like to give form to fear.

Here I will make a bold statement. Perhaps many will disagree and find my thoughts irrational and therefore irrelevant. Please humor me.

I believe that the great bile that continues to spill from the belly of many hundred years of slavery, Jim Cow and the more subtle institution of racism that abounds after the Civil Rights movement of the last century is fear. You may ask, who fears and what do they fear. I make so bold as to suggest that many (though not all) White Americans fear Black Americans.

Any group that subjugates, has subjugated or benefits from the subjugation of another group has reason to fear the subjugated group. How much can one group be robbed, raped, pillaged, sold, lynched, beaten, imprisoned, oppressed and exploited before it turns on those that seem to hold the chains? How many times can mothers send their children out, risking their violent end at the hands of a domineering force before their cries of anguish and grief become the screams and bellows of rage? With each incident, governing authorities call for calm instead of riot because no one seems to know just where our collective limit as a nation lies?

Just like slavery, racism was and is an institution that exists for the material benefit a particular group or groups over another group or other groups. It is not that once upon a time white Europeans found dark skin abhorrent, but rather that dark skin was found profitable to white Europeans. Many years later, there remains largely in tact a world system that benefits Whites, often at the expense of peoples, groups and nations that have historically made an ill landing on the shores of imperialism.

This is more than true in the United States, where —as sorry as we claim to be— the evidence of what was done to the Native American lays strewn throughout the territory, yet we struggle to change the further denigrating name of a profitable sports team. —A nation where black professionals should be altogether knocked out from always hitting the “glass ceiling”, and yet affirmative action is a dirty word and fought over in our courts. Even a leveling of the playing field is dramatically opposed. We are traditional dealers in euphemisms and platitudes, and we are lovers of political correctness, but stop angrily short of anything like reparations. We know that wealth is still being accumulated by White Americans who still benefit from past and present inequity. Although many White Americans believe in racial equality, they are unwilling to ensure that equality against their own pocketbooks. And so the end result is an unspoken fear that displays itself in the worst ways for everyone, whether black or white.

It may be too late to ask the reader’s forgiveness for my seeming blanket statements. my goal is not to offend, though I am aware that I must offend some. I know that there are White Americans who are champions of racial reconciliation, but that is not the topic of this post.

During the trial of Mark Zimmerman, who followed, attacked and fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen, I had a conversation with coworkers about the situation. One white man who was a part of the discussion spoke about being afraid of walking through Black and Latino neighborhoods as a white male. His admission gave me much to think about. Where did this fear come from? Had he been attacked previously by a Black or Latino person? I mentioned the conversation to a friend of mine who is also a white male. He identified with the fears of my coworker. I challenged him. He had never been attacked in a racially motivated incident. My conclusion is that the fear does not come from experience, but from subconscious guilt on some level.

If I believe that someone may attack me, there must be a credible reason for my belief. the reasons can stem from these three places. The first is that the attacker may be violent because they are not in their right faculties and I may have some previous experience with people lashing out violently who are not mentally healthy. The second may be that the would-be-attacker seeks to gain something from subduing me. That might be money, in the case of a thief, or notoriety in the case of a gang member. The third is that I may be attacked simply because of who my attacker is, and who he or she perceives me to be. In the conversations I mentioned previously, we seemed to be dealing with that third category of attack rational, in which a white person may be attacked by a black person simply because they are white. This implies some predisposed animosity by a would-be black assailant toward a white target.

From what I have seen, read about and experienced of this nation, I declare that a black man or woman, armed or unarmed has more to fear at the hands of a white majority that refuses to deal with subconscious and conscious fear of black people. I told my friend to consider that if he feels afraid while walking alone in any neighborhood that he can always know that the police will protect him. However, a black person in any neighborhood has to also fear the police as too many events have shown us.

I believe that if we can address the issue of white fear in America, we will do more to put an end to the kinds of headlines we have been used to of late. It may be supposed that, in most cases, those applying to the vocation of law enforcement go through rigorous vetting and training before they take up a badge and gun and head out to defend our neighborhoods and cites. How many are asked whether they have a fear of a particular group of people, I couldn’t say. Are people asked this when being licensed to own a gun? I don’t know. But I do believe that there is a place for this sort of question.

I wouldn’t want to encounter or have my father, brothers, uncles, cousins or spouse encounter someone who has a gun and yet is somehow inherently afraid of me or them. This must be a recipe for disaster.