Last night [Thursday, July 14] President Barack Obama held a town-hall style forum on race to address some of the issues surrounding the Dallas police attack and the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
The discussion focused on the seeming friction between Black Lives Matter supporters and supporters of police men and women. However, President Obama stressed the fact that in the event of tragedies such as those from the past weeks, support for a group like Black Lives Matter does not mean you are anti-police.
In the crowd were some the families affected by police violence, as well as families of police officers and government officials who spoke about the difficulties police officers face in protecting communities. President Obama advocated for great cooperation between police officials and the communities they serve to protect, as well as helping fund other agencies to help lighten the burden on police departments so that police officers are not the ones dealing with the wide variety of issues that may plague a community.
This discussion was obviously a big first step in the right direction in order to address some of these issues, but overall, the hour long program only just scratched the surface. Larger and lengthier discussions about race need to happen in America for true progress to be made. And those who participate in the discussion must be able to balance several difficult topics at the same time and accept the discomfort that comes along with discussions of race, instead of resorting to blaming tactics, or simply being on the defensive and accusing the other side of bullying.
