Eric Herr: On racial issues, we all must listen in order to understand

Four centuries after the first slave ship came to our shores, race haunts the American psyche and reality still. We see it in racial differences in income and wealth, life expectancy, education levels, incarceration rates, zoning driven housing segregation, and on and on. We see it across the nation in Black Lives Matter protests and counter protests, reactions to George Floyd’s death, attacks on Asians and Pacific Islanders, and in calls for reparations. Even locally, despite or perhaps because of New Hampshire’s racial homogeneity, we see it in proposed legislation, NH HB 544, and even in the volume of letters to the editor in The Laconia Daily Sun that address matters of race.  Some letters decry critical race theory as “being used to teach children hate” or that it is “politically motivated.” Others urge that we “stop finding racism where it doesn’t exist.” While others argue that “racism exists even in Belknap County” and note that even the U.S. military uses critical race theory as a pedagogical tool.

To be sure, the U.S. has made significant progress on race. Still, regarding race, our more perfect union is, at best, far from complete. At worst, as racial tragedies accumulate, the pressure to accelerate change builds.

Yet, it is clear from the letters to the editor that we lack a shared understanding of the facts of our racial history and present. We won’t find an effective path forward on issues of race until we develop racial common ground. And if we can’t agree on what our children should be taught on race there is little hope that their future on matters of race will be any better than ours.

These letters to the editor are a start. But articulating a point of view is not enough. We have to really listen to each other, to listen to understand not just respond. To that end, I invite you to use the Laconia Daily Sun’s Digital Public Square at laconiadailysun.com/digitalpublicsquare to probe our collective experience, points of view, and paths forward on matters of race via civil, civic dialogue.

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Eric Herr lives in Hill.