2014 or 1914?

The casual racism and insensitivity may be in the mode of 21st century branding—

Federal officials intervened Friday to stop police in Ferguson, Mo., from wearing "I am Darren Wilson" bracelets in solidarity with the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old there last month.

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson agreed to bar his officers from wearing the bracelets while in uniform and on duty, and to ensure that other local police agencies did too, according to a letter released Friday by Christy Lopez, deputy chief of the special litigation section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

But it's not trivial cluelessness— not when the St. Louis area has a long history of violence against blacks.

East St. Louis, 1917: rampaging whites incited by a familiar narrative—that blacks were coming to take their jobs and steal elections.