Cornel Young Jr. was black. All the shooters were white. On campus a few days later, under the purple glare of fluorescent lights in Hunter Lab, Professor Ferdinand Jones and his class of fifty students struggle to come to grips with the shooting. Leading the discussion, Jones tells his students that in his opinion, race was involved. That's not the same as saying racism is involved.
Race affects perceptions, affects how people make decisions.
You need to look very carefully at race so you can get beyond it. That kind of careful thinking is what Jones, a professor emeritus of psychology, is trying to inspire in his students. His class, Psychology 22, Cultural Mistrust, applies scientific thinking to a range of social problems. And the Cornel Young Jr. shooting is another opportunity to abandon hypotheticals and talk about the world outside. Cultural Mistrust is a course about differences, and how to negotiate them as honestly as possible.