Earlier this month we marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the nation's leading civil rights figure, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
As I almost always do on these occasions, I asked myself a question:
How far have we come?
In half a century, how close do we come every day to judging people by the content of their character, as opposed to the color of their skin.
That question certainly was very much on our minds in the wake of two recent troubling incidents.
The first was the arrest of two black men inside a Philly Starbucks.
The second involved a group of African-American women golfers who were harassed and asked to leave a golf club out near York, allegedly for "slow play."
Here is my question: Do these two stories play out the same way if the subjects involved were white instead of black.
I don't think so?
Why? Well in part because I have often sat in Starbucks for hours nursing a cup of coffee and never been approached by anyone asking if I was planning to buy anything else or how long I was planning to be in the store.
And I am a die-hard golfer. I have encountered slow groups. I like to play fast. In fact, my preferred time is to be the first person off the first tee at daybreak.
I have never heard of anyone being asked to leave a course for slow play.
So how far have we come?
We talk about it today on the editorial page.
Feel free to join the conversation.
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