Free Republic

Martin Luther King had a dream that some day his children would "live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." He wanted his children to become strong, beautiful people. But what we see today in poor African American neighborhoods is a nightmare. We know there are forces that make the ability to escape poverty seem bleak: overburdened single-parent homes, a high dropout rate, joblessness, gangs, drugs, crime, incarceration, deaths at an early age from guns fired by angry black men. We know that systemic racism...

BILL COSBY'S Wednesday visit to Baltimore did nothing for me but bring back a bad memory, one only a week old. None of this was Cosby's fault, mind you. My experience occurred in Cambridge, Mass., during my three days at a liberal re-education camp. You know it better as the college formerly called Harvard University. OK, so I'm kidding. A little. I spent three days in Cambridge, where members of the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists, held their annual meeting. There were several symposiums held with liberal cognoscenti in the Charles Hotel and at several places on the...

<p>Sekou Mims's son was 16 when he experienced a sudden psychotic breakdown. Over three months, the black teenager had a series of delusions - that white police were following him, that white strangers on a train were staring at him menacingly. He'd hyperventilate walking down the street. All his delusions revolved around racism.</p>