WS Chronicle

We have to work together to end racial profiling, Jim Crow policies

To the Editor:

With much sorrow, I learned of the recent deaths of Mr. Alton Sterling in Louisiana and

Mr. Philando Castile in Minnesota, again involving racial profiling.

Then, as our city and nation were sharing this great grief together, the cycle of racial profiling and violence came full circle with tragic five officer deaths in Dallas on July 7.

As a young African-American male from a low-income neighborhood, I can relate to being harassed by local police officers who would shadow my car because of its tinted windows and flashy car rims looking for some type of assumed illegal activity.

I quickly learned how to divert the police officers by driving into well-lit shopping areas to stop the racial profiling.

I have been blessed to date because I have never been stopped and brutalized, arrested or killed.

As a faith-based leader, I hear a persistent Cry for a Great Awakening to end the senseless racial profiling of the hardworking, everyday people of color.  It is time to forge a new path of justice, trust, and integrity for our country’s law enforcement agencies.

We have to work together to end this systemic racial profiling as well as the silent and hidden Jim Crow policies perpetuating institutional racism throughout our city and nation.

If not, we will continue to eulogize too many more of our black brothers and police officers.  A city or nation that accepts prejudice and racism as the status quo cannot continue to thrive, because every human life must matter.

Rev. Robert Leak III

President, New South Community Coalition President, Easton Neighborhood Association Winston-Salem

Trump’s visits to N.C. won’t make up for incompetency

To the Editor:

It’s no surprise that [Donald]Trump has run his campaign like his failed businesses: incompetently and with no regard for anyone but himself.

Donald Trump’s second visit to North Carolina this month can’t make up for the fact that he lags far behind Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in fundraising, campaign infrastructure and, as we’ve seen at the RNC, party unity.

Winning elections takes hard work, and while Democrats have and will continue to do that work through November, Trump seems content to pop in for a visit every couple of weeks.

Dave Miranda, spokesman North Carolina Democratic Party Raleigh