Editor’s Note: Terry F. Buss is a Fellow at the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration. He wrote this column exclusively for Tuoi Tre News.

In the previous post, I discussed how a protest over the shooting and killing by a white police officer of an unarmed Black teenager led to violent race riots in Ferguson, Missouri, and to peaceful protests across the U.S.

Race riots, like Ferguson’s, were once a familiar occurrence in the 1960s. In 1964, riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles led to 34 deaths and $40 million in damages; one in 1967 in Detroit to 43. The next big race riot occurring in 1992 killed 53. All were related to white police officers victimizing Black people in Black neighborhoods.

There have been hundreds of shootings of Blacks in recent years by white police, but none have led to the level of violence displayed in Ferguson.

Some observers believe that Ferguson will ignite a long-awaited debate about race and policing. Others believe that the national issue has always been there, looking for a case like Ferguson to explode it. Probably there is truth in both perceptions.

People view Ferguson very differently

The Pew Research Center conducted a nationwide survey about the shooting. People’s perceptions are far apart, but hopefully not irreconcilable. Some 80% of Blacks said that Ferguson raised racial issues that needed resolution, while 47% of whites said so. Among political parties: 68% of Democrats said the riots raised issues, while only 40% of Independents and 22% of Republicans agreed. Some 76% of Blacks reported having no confidence in law enforcement investigations, while 53% of whites agreed.

Any initiative seeking reconciliation and resolution will require intense, sustained work requiring a lot of resource and much good will. America may not be up to the task.

Past efforts have failed

Following the 1960s riots, the Kerner Commission of Urban Violence in 1968 was launched. They concluded that the police were largely at fault for the rioting and that they needed to be better trained, including becoming more sensitive to Blacks. They also called for a more diverse police force in Black neighborhoods. Ultimately, Black ghettos would need to be broken up and Blacks would need to be better integrated into the economy and community and they would need jobs. This effort went nowhere.

The next national effort was undertaken by President Bill Clinton, the One America Initiative, in 1997. It also went nowhere.

On December 1, President Obama met with various stakeholders on the issue and launched his own commission. Rhetoric coming out of the preliminary meetings was similar to that for previous efforts, as the issues have not changed. Hopefully, this effort can bear fruit.

Stop making race a political issue

Commissions are fine, but until real dialogue occurs, little will change. Too many people are all too ready to make race and the police an issue to further their own interests at the expense of others. Ferguson is a case in point. What’s really disheartening to Obama’s critics and opponents is that his administration is doing just that: fomenting racial tensions.

Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder, who is Black, has since 2009 been a lightning rod on race. He made a speech calling Americans racists and cowards because they failed to address race. He has accused those who disagree with Obama’s and his policies racists. Critics complain that Holder’s comments on Ferguson inflamed the race issue.

Al Sharpton is President Obama’s “chief advisor on race.” He operates non-profit organizations to help Blacks, funded by the private sector and U.S. government. He has his own MSNBC TV show, Politics Nations and a radio talk show. Critics complain that he fans the flames over race as he continues to do over Ferguson, while aggrandizing himself. Obama’s critics are outraged that Sharpton is so close to Obama.

An irony in this is that Holder has actually addressed many of criminal justice issues of concern to Blacks without antagonizing the opposition. He has investigated 20 police departments for racial discrimination, piloted a program to study racial bias in American cities, stopped incarcerating non-violent drug offenders, reformed federal criminal sentencing guidelines, and most importantly tried to reduce racial profiling by police. Critics wonder why everything has to be so politicized.

In addition to commissions and the need to lower racial rhetoric, there are other things being considered by Obama, media pundits and experts. These might make a difference in addressing Black grievances.

Get tough on rioters

Many complain that rioters are not held accountable by authorities. It’s often difficult to arrest or even identify criminals in a riot situation. Ironically, the rule of law is at the heart of the racial issues with policing. Blacks rightly complain that they are unjustly treated. So it only makes sense to fairly punish violence and rioting.

Get out the vote

Civil rights leaders and others immediately called on Blacks around the country to get out and vote, so that they could change the political system to better reflect their interests. The problem for Black political leaders is that Democrats already receive most Black votes; in the case of Obama’s presidential elections, he received 93% of Black votes in 2008 and 2012. It’s unclear how these activities would help address the race problem. But voting is always good.

Monitor police with police cams

Advocacy groups want to require police to wear cameras when on duty so that their every action can be recorded and reviewed for discriminatory or illegal behavior. Aside from the cost and logistics it’s a small thing to try if it eases tensions.

Eliminate discriminatory policing

Racial profiling is a terrible artifact of policing. Police target Blacks for search and arrest because they believe them to be likely criminals – called stop and frisk. But people cannot help being black or white, so this is unjust. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in August indicated that such stop and frisk actions show a real racial problem. This policy has been discontinued in many places, but its practice abounds.

Diversify police force

Diversity in many police departments is a problem. In Ferguson, a city of 21,000, some 65% of the population is Black. Of the 53 officers in the police force, only 3 are Black. While one would hope that race would not matter in policing, it clearly does. More effort needs to be made to attract qualified Black officers to the force. The same would be true for communities with large Latino populations. Many police departments across the country have accomplished this, so it can be done.

Increase police training

Few would argue against the notion that more and better training is needed in some police departments. The military, by contrast, spends most of its time training so as to be able to respond to any situation. Police training in Ferguson seems to have failed not only in individual policing, but also for crisis events. This can be easily fixed.

Do not demilitarize police

One issue in Ferguson is that police showed up to address riots in full military equipment complete with armored vehicles, helmets, bullet proof vests, and sophisticated weaponry. Police had become the military. Some experts argue that police have overstepped their roles: they are neither trained to function as the military, nor are they needed in a military role. Critics argue that the police were equipped by the federal government with military equipment to be able to respond to terrorist attacks. In addition, they argue that gangs roaming urban America are often better armed than the police. Disarming police would be a mistake.

America can only resolve race-based grievances if the people, interest groups and politicians come together to address them. This will be difficult, because Americans have allowed their country to become Balkanized around issues that separate people, not unite them. Everything has become a zero-sum game: you win, I lose. Everything revolves around short-term individual gain. America came a long way since the race riots of the 1960s, but it appears it is being dragged backward, rather than pushed forward. Too bad.