Why I wouldn't stop in certain parts of town if I had an accident

It wasn't that many years ago that a local woman was arrested and ostracized for driving away from the scene of an accident where she accidentally ran over three young children.  Seems a terrible thing to do, to drive away from such an accident.

Of course the story is much more than this and the things one cannot say about how or why it happened need to be heard before one can really judge her.

Let's say it all starts with thinking about Reginald Denny.  You know, a white truck driver in the "wrong" part of town when people are rioting over the Rodney King verdict.  Wrong color, wrong place, wrong time, pulled out of his truck, beaten senseless, all because of his color.  Now think about this girl in her early 20s, driving through the "wrong" part of town (as with Denny, "wrong" because, in the eyes of the residents "she" and her kind do not belong there).  Any of us who have driven through there know this and also know that people cross this street with little regard for their own safety, daring you (regardless of color) to hit them.  She accidentally and tragically hits a group of young children who are crossing the street, panics and drives away.

Now, read this story and tell me that she should have stopped to try to render aid.  Sadly, in the minds of some people, there are no accidents and the response to any accident is prejudice, violence, and mayhem.  And, as recent events clearly suggest, for them that is okay because it can all be justified.  I can say with certainty that this would not happen in the "other" part of town. So what's up with that?

Until such time as this primitive impulse to mob action and revenge can be quelled, there will be no peace and people will feel compelled to take sides and defend themselves.  Until that can happen, I know I would not stop in the "wrong" part of town, not because I value anyone less than myself, but because I know I am valued less there, where I am seen as nothing more than a representative of my race who is to be assaulted, to be an object for revenge over real, imagined, current or past wrongs I did not commit. Perhaps some will see this as cultural elitism, that I am suggesting that certain cultures and their norms are disruptive to good order.  Perhaps they are right.

Equality implies two sides of the equation; it does not mean one group falls back to allow another to occupy the field.