Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder had a dream that ebony and ivory would live together in perfect harmony, like the keys on a piano keyboard. If the keyboard can do it, “oh Lord, why don’t we?”
Agreed, let’s do that. But not everybody wants to. And out in California, it is once again being confirmed that history is not a steady march into the light. Sometimes we retreat, and in the silliest ways.
The state has just instituted an amber alert system exclusively for missing black kids called ebony alert. The reason, according to the state senator behind the legislation, Steven Bradford, is that “Our black children and young women are disproportionately represented on the lists of missing persons. This is heartbreaking. . . .”
How will an ebony alert address this in ways an amber alert does not? Will black kids no longer be kidnapped or be more easily found if only there’s a racially divided alert system?
There’s no rhyme or reason. The reporting details how many black kids went missing in 2022, the percentage of missing persons who are black, etc. But it’s all a non sequitur. There’s no explanation of how having an ebony alert will, by itself, provide even one additional benefit.
If the amber alert currently functions imperfectly and might be improved, this can obviously be done without resorting to racial segregation.
Sen. Bradford says: “Something is better than nothing.”
Senator, that’s true only when the “something” makes sense.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with Firefly
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
3 replies on “Amber Ebony Insanity”
So much for e pluribus unum.
Future references to the sponsor should be phrased “noted segregationist Steven Bradford …”
I always have to laugh at the words of that song, even if the sentiment of living in harmony is laudatory: ebony and ivory keys side-by-side form a minor second, the most dissonant interval on the piano keyboard.