The Walter Scott Murder: Is It More Than Racism?

We've seen a black man strangled to death by police officers for selling loose cigarettes and we've seen a young black man killed by police while his hands were held in the air. We've seen black kids shot to death while holding toy guns and we've heard the struggle of a black teen shot to death while walking home by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman.  The result has normally been the same.  Another black man or child is murdered while the killer who has vowed to serve a community is set free.  

We've considered these incidents to be acts of racism. We've also categorized these murders as police brutality feeling that something is wrong with the way the police force trains its officers.  But, have we once thought that these assaults are the result of innate feelings that non-black people can not truly explain. Well, sounds like racism, right?  It always sounds like racism; and it certainly feels like racism.  But can one truly explain how one automatically concludes that the best course of action to handle a child who has a black pointy object in his hands is to drive towards him and shoot him dead?  There simply has to be more to it than racism.

Walter Scott ran away from his vehicle after being pulled over by Michael Slager, a white South Carolina police officer.  It is presumed that Scott felt that he would be going to jail for non-payment of child support or some other minor offense after Slager checked his ID.  Scott fled and Slager pursued after him. There was a confrontation and Scott fled again. Slager then shot Scott eight times in the back.  What logical reason did Slager have for shooting a fleeing man in his back? Would he have done this to a white man? That's something that we honestly do not know; however, the majority of rational thinking people feel that he probably would have not.

Are some white folks truly that afraid of black people? Are some white folks simply tired of seeing black people in prominent positions?  Is there pressure felt based upon the fact that the American society has changed in ways that is far from the "good days of old?"  

All of these scenarios are possibilities, but I'm starting to wonder if non-blacks truly know that these thoughts exists. Nevertheless, they continue to act upon a level of hatred that seemingly they don't even understand. For certain, this is an issue that does not appear to go away. More questions and better answers are needed; these casual murders of American black men is growing sorrowfully old.