Perhaps too easy. Perhaps it's too easy to pass this off as just one heinous act in the history of American racism. After all, we've had 250 years of slavery, and 100 years of Jim Crow, in our 400 years of existence. That's 87.5 percent of our history. I don't think we face it honestly if we limit our analysis of this crime to the subject of race.
Violent crime knows no boundaries of time, place, sex, or race.
A brief inventory of well-publicized cases makes this point. Then there are the cases of the Unabomber, the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City. And serial killers like Ted Bundy, Wayne Williams and Richard Ramirez. And homicidal maniacs like Charles Manson. Sadly, the list never ends.