The sound of a car lock

Another click. Then another. Click, click, click.

That’s what Austin Weekly News editor Terry Dean wrote happens when he passes vehicles while crossing the street in Oak Park.

Click, click. From car doors. From vans. Even from people sitting in parked cars. Dean says he has no problem with being cautious and people making sure they’re safe in their cars. But it’s just something he can’t help but notice – and hear.

Click. Click. Click-click. That’s a double clicking of a door.

“I’ve worked in Oak Park for six years, but I’m not aware of a rash of carjackings taking place,” wrote Dean.

“Now to change gears a bit – as a society, we tend to shy away from discussions involving race and racism,” he writes in last week’s Austin Weekly News column.

“And those who really don’t want to talk about such issues usually play the ‘playing the race card’ card. That’s become the catch-all weapon of folks who want to undermine meaningful and legitimate discussions about race issues when a minority brings them up. I can hear those folks now as clear as I hear the click, click, clicking of the car doors.”

To read Dean’s entire column, click here.