Each time, I felt a surge of racial hostility. Each time, I cooled off when reality set in, when I mulled over the dilemma of race, when I remembered that we live in a country where whites always got the gold mine and blacks got the shaft. Increasingly, America is plagued by a dual black crisis of rampant violence and rampant unwed births. It's costing taxpayers billions in prison expense and welfare expense. Everyone from Jesse Jackson to President Clinton is talking about it, but nobody seems to know a solution.
Murder is their leading cause of death.
Experts expect black incarceration to worsen. The situation is spurring white bigotry. Contemptuous wisecracks are more common. The blame game is being played. Our Kanawha Valley thrived on slavery.