The divide widens.

• Author: Trustone, Judith
• Position: RACE RELATIONS - Race discrimination in the United States

"I CAN'T IMAGINE what it's like to be white, even for one day," my friend said wistfully after experiencing another in the series of both subtle and overt snubs clearly related to her dark skin--one of many that I have witnessed during our 30 years of friendship. Sometimes, when the actions of a rude clerk were impossible to ignore, I would chide the person, hand them a "Thank you for your kindness" card, and say, "You really need to be kinder to people" while I simmered with barely suppressed anger at what my friend--and all black people, regardless of status--endures on a daily basis.

Is she another "angry black woman" with a chip on her shoulders braced for possible insults? You bet--but, more than that, she is scared. No matter what she says, teaches, or does, no matter the extent of her sacrifices for her family, she still cannot keep her sons protected, no matter if they are presidents or 12-year-olds; nor her daughters, for black women are the fastest growing segment of the prison population.

Aside from my friend's many personal experiences with racism, here is one of the reasons why she is so chronically traumatized: when her 19-year-old son was a top student on scholarship at a small southern college, he was arrested for murder while walking down the street. It took her several weeks to raise the money for bail and to find a local lawyer who was able to prove her son's innocence and get him out of jail.

Whatever happened to him in jail--God only knows--he was so scarred by being held behind bars for a crime he did not commit that he dropped out of school. Ever since, he has gone from job to job, self-medicating with alcohol and drugs for PTSD. This once promising young man seemingly is doomed by the experience of that incarceration. His mother, too, never has been the same--and never will be. It took her years to pay back the thousands she had begged and borrowed to get him free.

Why are white people so afraid of black people, especially young, black males? Is it some twisted psychosexual fear of them stealing white women as the number of whites in the population declines? Is it some primordial fear that with slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration, on some level whites are afraid of retribution? Is it the media that profits on highlighting young blacks as criminals? Most whites--good, kind people--would be baffled and dismayed if it was pointed out to them that it is passive, unconscious racism bubbling just under the new...