While I listened to radio reports about the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferugson police officer, I heard who a man introduced, I think, as a Missouri State Police captain.  In his attempt to explain the larger context for why Brown’s death is not merely or simply an accident or even the act of one individual, he described what he observed as communities “entrenched in paradigms.” Indeed, as a state trooper and an African-American, he explained the dire consequences for such communities that are perpetually at odds with each other. Read more