Sometimes it takes an outsider to crystallize America’s enduring racism – Max Bearak / Wash Post

mainia keiA U.N. official just spent 17 days traveling across the United States, and what a 17 days it was.

As we’re accustomed to U.N. officials doing in other countries, Maina Kiai visited the United States’ most restive places, seeking insight on the conditions that prevent peace. From the grief-stricken cities of Baton Rouge and Ferguson, Mo., roiled by the killings of unarmed black men by police officers, to the contentious political battlegrounds of convention-week Cleveland and Philadelphia, Kiai witnessed a country riven by inequality and ideological polarization.

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