Mary McNamara: We are all horrified, but only white people have the luxury of being shocked

Last night while my city burned and curfew fell, I sat and watched "Black Panther" and thought about what smug hypocrites white people can be.

Myself included, of course.

I have spent a lifetime watching cities burn and always over the same damn thing: racism. I am just old enough to remember the 1968 Baltimore riot, one of several violent protests that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I remember it mainly because the curfew extended to my family's suburban neighborhood, which meant I could not play in the yard as long as I wanted to do, something I found extremely unfair.

A reasonable reaction for a 4-year old; not so much for a grown person, though that is the response from far too many white people whenever a city burns for the same damn reason. Including this weekend. It's so much easier to judge a relatively few looters than deal with the fact that the country you live in would rather regularly set