While criminals come in all colors, the old civil rights narrative about lynching is grimly instructive during tragedies like this.

The same young men who reliably blame White folks for all their ills nonetheless saw no racial contradiction in playing the role of lyncher when they decided to kill someone White, ultimately an Australian named Chris Lane.

He is a hate crime victim if ever there were one. Even advocates who submit all crimes are hate ones will concede this fact.

It seems the roles are being switched in what I term the “civil wrong” narrative where Blacks now play bigoted haters and Whites the innocent victim.

This role reversal proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the bad guys of slavery and Jim Crow weren’t so because of color alone, but conduct.

Now that a president who identifies himself as Black sits in the White House, the silence on this case matches that of White predecessors who were mute when the NAACP raised the issue of 20th Century White On  Black lynching.

So here we are, in a sordid state of  affairs, where a self-identified Black president and civil wrong industry prove no more concerned about hate crime victims than the dead White men they denounce.

Chris Lane is a hate crime victim, robbed of his civil right to life itself… because of the color of his skin.

Americans who care shouldn’t be silent about this tragedy!

Our national honor demands it!