HARPER: Well, I’ll tell you. Just in the last two weeks I have participated in four major conversations on race and racial justice in multiple different contexts, from white to multiethnic, national leaders, grassroots””there’s major conversations happening, and people are beginning to make the bridge between conversations and protest.
ABERNETHY: Talk and protest, but I’m wanting to hear what you think has to be done, and how it can be done, and whether it can be done.
HARPER: Well, the number one thing that needs to be done is we need to grow in understanding. I think that we haven’t listened to the young people, churches including, and so when I say listen, I really mean listen to the stories of the young people, because they are ones that are bearing the brunt of most of the crisis that we’re experiencing””Michael Brown, Jonathan Crawford. I mean, the drug wars in particular focused massive amounts of ammunition, of police forces in our urban centers, and as a result those places have become war zones, and our young people are the ones who are bearing the brunt of that.