the still rational part is the key. But few remain rational. The ones that do are worth the effort to keep speaking with.
My son in law grew up in the Pittsburgh ‘bad side of town’. In our first real political conversation I asked him what he thought about Jessie and Al riding/flying around in luxury and doing hit and run ‘civil rights’ work. I just pretty much said some version of “They got theirs and they left people hang when the cameras left. Ever hear of anyone they ‘helped’ go on to live a better life?’
Stunned him. He’d never even considered it from that perspective before. But he did consider it. I never made a hardcore right winger out of him, but he never looked at ‘black issues’ the same way. And that caused him a lot of grief with the homies.
Was there any bad feelings in Ferguson before the riots?? Probably not much.