When will race not be an issue in the US?

The answer is never unfortunately. Race divisions have been part of the American way of life since the country was founded in 1776. The terrible days of racial and racist segregation are over but the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a black man, by three white men, has shown that the lynch-mob tendency is still alive and well. Arbery was jogging in a white area and was therefore seen as highly suspicious and possibly a robber because of a spate of recent burglaries and needed to be challenged and dealt with. It was like a scene out of the brilliant 1980s film, Mississipi Burning. The court case in which the three white men were eventually found guilty and now face life imprisonment, had terrifying echoes of that film. The defence counsel for the defendants spoke in appallingly racist language to try and persuade the jury that Arbery deserved what happened to him. At one point attorney Laura Hogue told the jury that Arbery was wearing no socks "to cover his long dirty toenails". I wasn't in the court room obviously but I can just see the attorney saying these words with a sneer on her face. The whole case was riddled with racism and the fact that the jury dismissed the self-defence argument and found the men guilty was thanks to the clear evidence on video that Arbery had been killed for only one reason. He was black. Or to put it another way, he didn't look like any of the three men who were involved in his brutal death. On Thanksgiving Day, a time of celebration for the whole nation, I wish all my American friends a happy family get-together. Added to the Thanksgiving should be huge thanksgiving and relief that the three white men were convicted of this appalling crime.