In 2016, white America elected a racist president. That privilege comes with a cost

Twenty years ago, I was living in New York and working as a drama critic for the Daily News. I used to walk most mornings across Manhattan to the papers office on the west side of the island.
On March 16th, 2000, I saw some police tape outside the Wakamba, a cocktail lounge on Eighth Avenue, but didnt think much of it. Only later in the day did I hear that a 26 year-old-man, Patrick Dorismond, had been shot dead there in the early hours of the morning. In that foolish way the mind has of making events that happen on familiar territory seem more important, I paid a lot of attention to this killing.