Commentary: Is history of slavery to blame for targeting of black males?

I am a grandmother of a 22-year-old college student, a black male. Many times over breakfast, I have tried to get him to read a story in the local newspaper. Sometimes he will give it a glance, but usually his attention is on his phone.

Thursday morning, he pulled me into his telephone world. He showed me the story of the Twin Cities police shooting of Philando Castile and his girlfriend's wrenching account of sitting next to her dying boyfriend. The story had not yet made print media, but social media had taken the story around the world in moments. And the firsthand account of Diamond Reynolds, with her young child also a witness to the shooting, was as thorough as any news report could hope to be.

Juxtapose this tragedy with the latest shooting tragedies in our own city. In the span of a few days, 16-year-old Asir Brown was shot to death at a backyard barbecue and two more teens were wounded in senseless shootings. As a mother of three sons and grandmother of three grandsons, for decades I have lived in a silent terror for them.

I was first introduced to police targeting of black males when Philadelphia officers let their dogs loose on my then-teenage son and other Masterman students waiting for the subway at Broad and Spring Garden. This was at the same time that mothers in North Philadelphia were fighting back against gang wars in their neighborhoods.

Sometimes on talk radio, I hear people in the white community complaining that blacks only react when there is a killing of blacks by whites or police officers. In the end, when a parent has to bury a child, it doesn't hurt less because of the color of the assailant's skin. And I would argue that most blacks understand that the black perpetrator in a shooting death will be brought to justice. But a police officer, who is sworn to protect the public, most times is not found guilty - if he is even brought to trial.

It's as if a war has been declared on black males, and the perpetrators can be black or white. Is America's history of slavery the reason?

As I have explained to all my children and grandchildren, in the days of slavery, any person had the right to capture or kill a black attempting to run away from enslavement. And black men were encouraged to fight one another for sport and the entertainment of their white owners.

When I see my grandson, I see a bright, compassionate young man trying to find his way through life. But I wonder what the police officers who killed Philando Castile saw as he attempted to show them his driver's license. Were they transported back in time to see a dangerous Negro who was a threat to the system and society? And what did the black man who shot Asir Brown see or think before he pulled the trigger? Maybe he saw another black man who looked like him and, for whatever reason, he wanted to hurt that image of himself.

Karen Warrington is the director of communications for U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.). karen_warrington@aol.com