What Kids Can Teach Us About the Trayvon Martin Situation

The case of the assault of George Zimmerman and subsequent shooting of Trayvon Martin has brought out the worst in people.  Black America, their grievances on a medium boil since the Civil Rights era, have boiled over.  Liberal America, seeking inroads both to the race and gun situation, stirs the pot.  Traditional media, sensing a bigger story at hand, has time and again sought to pour gasoline on the fire.  And social media is awash with abject racism and overt threats of violence.

In the wake of all of this, you might feel like we've made absolutely zero progress in race relations.  Indeed, our country can elect (and reelect) a black man to the most powerful position in all of human history, and still one isolated assault threatens massive violence in our streets. 

We seem to be unable to stop hating each other.

Then I bumped into this video:



I know it's long, and I also know portions of it are almost sickeningly politically correct.  However, if you can get past that and get to what the kids are saying, and how they're reacting, there's cause for hope.

Families are doing it right.  Churches are doing it right.  The kids are getting it.  So where are we breaking down?

We break down in the exact places where we should not - Higher education.  Government. Entertainment.  Media.

All of those areas continue to judge the world by race.  They continue to keep score as to who is what, and who's owed what.  They don't see our commonality.  They only see our differences.  They perceive massive debts left unpaid.  They loathe our history, and in some instances, our country.  Thus, the anger, resentment, and violence continue.

The harm that has been done to this country by these groups under the auspices of "doing good" is tangible.  I won't go into a laundry list of what's wrong with race relations right now - this list is too long and too obvious.  But it is safe to say that it, based on the actions and opinions of some of pillars of our society, we've made basically no progress.

But then I look at a video of some kids - untainted by those institutions that are rewarded for perpetuating racial strife, and I feel like maybe we have a chance.

We'll see.