The emotionalized reactions to the recent police leaks in the Trayvon Martin case and the fuss over a few racist online responses to the Hunger Games movie shows that our society has a long way to go to start a productive discussion on race. Far too often, these discussions are hijacked by extremist social progressives and conservatives convinced that the other camp is a plague on humanity who are determined to undermine this country for political gain. Inevitably, the appearance of these extremists drives discussions into personal attacks and further wedges any possibility of finding some sort of compromise on the issue being discussed.

I personally believe that there are at least a good 75% of us who are open to rational discussion on racial issues, and if we sit down and agree to keep some of the more borderline-insane political views out of discussions we'd be a lot more effective in figuring out ways to understand and help each other rather than bringing each other down. Civility and respect are key to get anywhere in bridging cultural gaps.

With that in mind, here are a few “guidelines” I came up with:

Extremist social progressives- stop pretending that in this day and age that simply being white is enough to put someone on the fast track to success. Don't act like white people are all inherently selfish or only care about racism when it's politically convenient, and don't continue to blame white people today for past acts of discrimination that they were in no way responsible for. White people are just as qualified to discuss race as anyone else.

Extremist social conservatives- stop acting like the NAACP is a bastion of evil, that welfare is a conspiracy to keep minorities dependent on Democratic politicians or that if we simply just stopped talking about race than the problems surrounding racism will magically fix itself. Institutionalized racism still exists in society, and involving government in attempts to uplift the social or economic status of minorities is not always a bad thing. 

Most importantly- and this goes for both sides- don't act like a crusader of justice. We all need to accept that simply because we hold a belief doesn't mean it's necessarily “The Truth”. There are always going to be a variety of people in the world with unique perspectives that are equally viable to your own. Coming to a compromise isn't about winning or losing, it's about learning to empathize with people with differing cultural views and finding a middle ground.