This is surely a little unfair. The Black community didn’t really “normalize” this treatment — they had it thrust down upon them from “above” and any attempt to resist has the possibility of grave if not fatal consequences.

Keeping your head down and trying not to die is not “normalizing” abusive treatment at the hands of your fellow man — it’s simple self-preservation.

Great article: thanks for taking the time to write it!!

And I want to add that that story about being stopped by the police with your parents was absolutely, absolutely appalling, and I’m only glad that it didn’t end up a lot worse. Like all humans, I bring these situations back to myself — my Dad was a very decent human, particularly dealing with vulnerable people or people in difficulty, but he had a bad temper sometimes when dealing with authority, and in that situation, he would have been shot and killed by the police — that is, if he wasn’t a white guy with an English accent.