BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  MAR 24

Sometimes truth is hard to come by. We see it but don’t recognize it for what it is, or we choose to confront it, rather than embrace it.

Truth never seems to be absolute. It always leaves just enough in doubt, so that we can claim total deniability and go on believing whatever we want to believe.

Some have the courage not to do that; columnist Jonathan Capehart, for example.

Capehart found truth in the Justice Department report on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri. The report discredited the now infamous “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative surrounding Brown’s death. It was a narrative that sparked protests, destroyed businesses, fomented greater racial tension, and even inspired CNN news anchors (none of whom were disciplined), members of Congress, and professional football players to put their hands up in protest of what they were seduced by their own preconceived notions into thinking was the shooting of an innocent, unarmed black youth by a racist white cop.

Capehart, in his column March 16, wrote that he believed the “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative, but realized after review of the evidence that the narrative was built on “a lie.” He didn’t have to acknowledge that truth. He could have done what hundreds of others in the public eye have done, either said nothing or remained firmly embedded in a state of denial.

English jurist and philosopher, Sir William Blackstone said “Truth is the daughter of time.” Author Bill Gavin, reminded us of that pearl of wisdom last fall in this space.

Gavin, with greater eloquence than Blackstone, went on to write, “Truth has to be discovered. What is proclaimed with absolute certainty, especially when it is accompanied by righteous anger or outrage, may not be necessarily so. Discovery takes time and energy and dedication and courage. What we know now about what has been reported may not turn out to be the truth, even though angry people are demanding that we believe it.”

Prescient.

Capehart crystalized what is so terribly debilitating about the politics of racism in America–and it is not just racism but the politics of racism that pollutes the atmosphere in which race relations take place. Capehart found a truth, acknowledged it, and cleared the intellectual air for him and us to seek other truths that could inspire other conversations about other aspects of race in America more pressing and more real. For what Capehart wrote, however, he was pummeled from the right and the left in social media and mostly ignored by the legacy media, including his own newspaper.

Shortly after the Treyvon Martin shooting, one of my daughters asked me why I never wrote about racial issues. I told her I didn’t because I did not believe an honest public discussion about race is possible anymore. The wrong people control the microphone–those with agendas, those with an investment in racial tension, those who naturally distrust, those with more capacity to talk than to think, those driven by passions rather than reason and those who believe not truth, but noise will lead to justice. They define the terms; they set the tone and they would rather agitate than agree. Most importantly, they dominate the media and too often they are the media.

I told her what Gavin told me 30 years ago: unless the sides in a conversation trust the motivation of the other, a constructive conversation cannot take place. Unless there is tolerance for contrary views, and unless those engaged are willing to admit error, to think and rethink their conclusions and stay focused on the right outcome, little good can come of it, and that is why you engage this explosive subject, in the hope that some good will come from it.

The issues of race in America are so complex. Activists on one side cite four or five recent incidents– Sanford, FL, Cleveland,  New York City,  Los Angeles, Ferguson and now Charlottesville, VA–of what they believe to be police brutality against black victims, as though the incidents were all alike, a simple case of racist white cops killing black victims.

In Charlottesville, just a week ago, a black student at the University of Virginia was injured by alcohol enforcement police during an attempt to arrest him for alleged underage drinking. Protesters and the media, particularly the Washington Post, wasted no time in identifying the incident as race-based, without knowing whether the incident involved other circumstances like resisting arrest, or whether there was any evidence to make us believe the alcohol cops were acting out of racist intent.

It is easy to assume racial bigotry in a country in which racism was woven into the fabric of its founding 226 years ago, and racial discrimination permeated society throughout most of its history. A young black student protesting in Charlottesville last week condemned the University, reminding the media that its founder, Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves. So, I guess that makes it a racist University.

Racism exists today, although we have no good yardstick by which we can measure its extent–the truth of it–among all races. But the existence of racism is not sufficient evidence for concluding it is causation in every conflict between races, or that it infects the heart of every white American or every black one. Clearly, it doesn’t. One would hope that the vast majority of Americans, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, all want the same outcome, a society and an economy in which opportunities are abundant and equally shared.

The challenges to that outcome are as immense as racism is complex, and meeting them is only exacerbated by race baiting. We must focus on the real villains, like the defacto racism of poverty and do it blind to the color of skin.

Equality of opportunity cannot be realized in schools that are underfunded, unchallenged, ill-equipped and poorly staffed. Equal opportunity cannot be realized by children who are under-nourished, improperly parented, poorly housed and clothed, and unguided or misguided by their peers and their environment. Equal opportunity cannot be realized if there are no jobs or hope of advancement. Equal opportunity will never exist for those who believe it is more productive to burn down a small business in protest rather than cast a ballot on election day.

Equal opportunity will never happen unless more Americans make it happen in the temples of decision-making in this country, from the religious pulpit to the bully pulpit, from the local city council in Ferguson, MO to the Congress in Washington, where inaction, dysfunction and partisan gridlock are among the worst forms of discrimination because they make it impossible to relieve the pain of just being poor, whether you believe that is through the engine of economic entrepreneurship or the benevolence of big government. Neither is possible without action.

Jonathan Capehart has it right. Exercise the character and the good judgment to seek out the truth where it can be found, do away with deliberately construed falsehoods and incendiary devices, and keep moving in the right direction, toward outcomes most of us really want for our families, our neighborhoods, and our country. With truth will come trust, and with trust, reason has a chance. That’s where we want to be.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.