THEY TAKE DRIVING TESTS, DON'T THEY?

I live in a college town and, like all college towns, it supports a diverse community. As my landlord said so long ago, referring to the different cultures represented here, "The school brings 'em in."

I see a lot of people in the course of a day and am at liberty to observe how they interact with one another. It is unfortunate that no one was there to observe George Zimmerman on the night of February 26, 2012. 

Everyone knows who killed Trayvon Martin, and why. The man who shot him to death was acquitted because to convict him we would have to admit to the George Zimmerman in ourselves. Fortunately, we have devised a Rube Goldberg for the purpose of obscuring ugly truths, like the individual and collective responsibility we bear for the society we (actively or passively) create. We call our Rube Goldberg "the Legal System", and it never disappoints. 

I've thought of a test by which we may learn something about ourselves, with respect to racism. I urge every member of society to take it. The test is this (and I use "black" and "white" because it is the classic form of racism in Western society):

If you are "white" and whenever you meet a "black" person, you think, "This is a black person", but whenever you meet a "white" person, you don't  think, "This is a white person," guess what.
Own it.