Michael Fuller: Perhaps a lack of empathy leads to racism

In response to the writer of the letter “I want a wall, but I’m not racist” (June 15), who wanted “to comfort liberals with the fact that law-abiding gun owners are no threat to them.” All he had to do was read Leonard Pitts’ op-ed piece (“Simple traffic stop left woman terrified” Page 6A, June 15) at the bottom of the same page to get a completely different take on the meaning of “fact.”

We have seen a spate of killings by police officers and others, supposedly law-abiding gun owners who kill young black men. Surprisingly, juries find these law-abiders not guilty of even manslaughter. Our awareness began in 2012 when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. We have just found out that Philando Castile’s killer got off – after we watched and heard Castile do what everyone has been told to do: tell the officer if you have a gun. Lot of good that did him. And for a broken taillight, to boot.

Has this writer ever tried to put himself in the shoes of a person of color? Perhaps not even trying to do so is tantamount to being racist in the 21st century?

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Michael Fuller: Perhaps a lack of empathy leads to racism."