Hey friend,

I hate the fact that we are so divided along racial lines in this country, and I pray that this will change at some point in the future, or at least improve.

However, I do think that sometimes we only hear one side of the story and its not the whole story.

I was jumped on a couple of occasions, had my bike stolen, had a friend that I was hanging out with suddenly try to start fighting me for no reason, and in all of these incidents the issue was with young, black males.

My wife’s brother was kidnapped at the age of 19, but he put up a fight and the van crashed on the side of the road. He ran home and luckily never heard from them again. The van was full of 4 black males.

At an apartment complex I used to live at, my wife was routinely harassed by 4 black males who were also unemployed. We moved out of there at the expense of breaking our lease because, although I’m no whimp, I certainly can’t fight 4 guys at once. I overheard one of them bragging about his time in prison… not nice guys.

My whole life, I have had issues with young, black males attacking me or my family members. Robbing me or my family members. Threatening me. Stealing from me.

I am always told in the media that I am the problem, because I am less trusting of black males that I see walking down the street. Of course, if I meet them in church or at work, that is a different story. However, I think if we’re going to improve race relations in this country, there also needs to be some serious reform in the black community. I don’t see how we should be expected to trust young black males in the same way that we would trust anyone else, when our life experience tells us that — for whatever reason — they are far more likely to harm us. I’m not racist. I don’t think any race is in any way superior to another race. My wife is Guatemalan-American. However, I think that for a variety of historical and social reasons, there is more violence in the African American community, and whites are often the victims of crimes purpetrated by African American males. Until there is some serious change in the black community, it’s not realistic to expect that whites, hispanics, and asians are going to trust african americans just as much as they trust anyone else.

I hope you don’t think I’m a terrible person for what I’ve said. I hold no animosity against anyone because of their skin color.