When rapper Lil Wayne used offensive lyrics that included the name of Emmett Till, it sparked a conversation about whether or not much of this generation actually knew him or why or how he died.

Now, this generation has an Emmett Till of its own, Trayvon Martin. The circumstances of their murders have some eerie similarities and the fact that one happened in 1955 and the other almost 60 years later in 2012 makes it more significant.

The more I see and learn over the years, the more I’ve come to believe that some things will never change, no matter how much progress we make or who’s in the White House. That post-racial America conversation that everyone wanted to have makes less sense than ever. I’d be foolish to say we’re in the same spot that we were in the 1950s as African Americans, but I’d also be…