I am the grandfather of a nappy-haired, afro-sporting, earbud wearing, football and basketball playing Black college student. And I am scared that his chances to live to adulthood are directly related to the extent to which he avoids white men with guns, whether they wear badges or not. That’s sad, but that’s the country we live in.

My wife has done a lot of thinking about it, and is of the opinion that much of our problems as a country stem from slavery. We exist on land stolen from one group of people, land which was made fertile and productive by labor stolen from another group. And those stains seem to have permanently affected our society and body politic.