On the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy by the police.

This morning, a 12-year-old boy died in Cleveland of injuries he received yesterday when he was shot by a police officer.

The first news I saw of this was a tweet in which the twitterer expressed sympathy for the family and worried that "things could get ugly".

Those four words complete the circle. They explain what killed this American child. (These are our children, America.)

Faced with an appalling incident of white-on-black violence, the twitterer was afraid of what black people might do. The only white-majority nation ever to elect a black head of state is still terrified of black people.

The electorate is still capable of hearing about the violent death of a black child and worrying that... that... that someone might get hurt?

That the response might be anger?

It is.

If you've ever lost someone close to you, you know that anger is always part of the response, even if the cause was an incurable disease. (Why didn't someone cure it?!) Now imagine how angry you might be if someone killed your child because they were afraid of him.

(These are our children, America.)

The black community will be expected (by America) to grieve in a way that unnaturally suppresses anger. Any expression of anger that occurs will be magnified in the media, and the fear will be fed, and the cycle will continue.

And don't expect the media to forego the traditional demonization of the victim just because he was

Twelve.

So far what we've heard is that the assailant was a rookie cop. This is the second fatal shooting of an unarmed black person by a "rookie cop" in two days. We'll be asked to sympathize with his fear and inexperience.

Against the fear and inexperience of a child.

A mature media would ask the following questions. Since we don't have such a media, let's ask them of ourselves:

• Is something being said, officially or sub rosa, to trainee police officers that is making them afraid of black people?
• If trainees are already afraid of black people before their training, shouldn't someone else be recruited, someone who's not afraid of black people?
• Can prospective trainees be tested for a fear of black people? (Tests exist.)
• If "rookie cops" have an increased tendency to shoot unarmed people (something that may or may not be true, but that we're being tacitly asked to accept), should "rookie cops" perhaps go unarmed?

I don't know much about how police officers are selected, but I know how teachers are. And there is a winnowing that goes on at all phases of the process. Any discomfort with people of other races, religions, or nationalities is (ideally) identified, and addressed. When all else fails, it's addressed by taking the aspirant gently by the arm and leading him or her to the door marked EXIT.

It's time the same standard was applied to police officers.

100 Must-Read Books by... some people.

Sigh. Amazon has just released a list of 100 books everyone should read. Of course I started out counting how many I'd read. But I quickly became distracted, as I scrolled through the rows of book covers, by how few of the books were by female authors.

So I ended up counting the male authors on the list. Seventy of the books are by men.

I want to acknowledge that progress has been made. Traditionally, lists of this kind contain only a handful of books by women. Or none.

There are also five (5) books on the list by black writers.

Now, here are a few books by women and/or black writers that are not on the list although most bookish people have probably read most of them:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (probably not qualified because she's already on the list once)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Roots by Alex Haley

Just off the top of my head.

There are 22 children's books on the list (thanks, Sarah!) of which 15 are by men. I won't bother to list those books by women that could have been included, because it's my impression most children's books are by women. But here are a few by African-American writers that surely qualify for a literary to-do list:

The Watsons Go To Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Oh, and a whole host of picture books by Donald Crews or Pat Cummings.

Anyway. These (not so) minor quibbles aside, let me get back to my original count. I find I've read 36 of the 100 books on the list. Of those, I liked 16 and loved 3. There are also 6 books on the list that I tried to read but gave up on. But that's not the authors' fault. It's this darn ADD.