Abraham Lincoln didn’t make enough copies of the Emancipation Proclamation to go around.

Either that, or not enough of us bother to read past the headline.

I do not know what it’s like to be black, although many white folks claim they do. If only a higher authority could make all white people — except babies, who are born color-blind and without rancor — black for a day.

Just one damn day.

As Nelson Mandela said: “People must learn to hate.”

I do not know what it’s like to walk outside and be looked upon with hate from people who don’t know me, or what I stand for, or what I do, or what I have done.

Black people, regardless of wealth or status, cannot feel protected.

One of the biggest problems is that white people, especially those with a voice, are fearful of discussing race. There is nothing more difficult to get right, to fumble (see Drew Brees, below). It is The Greatest Divide; too often the wounds are left open.

White people worship black athletes. And yet many, including those who claim to be without prejudice, wouldn’t want them moving in next door.

I have seen, but do not know, what it’s like to walk into a store and immediately have watchful eyes on me, due to the color of my skin.

I do not know what it’s like to be profiled while driving a nice car or simply trying to board an airplane.

I am white. I cannot know.

But I have seen it far, far too many times.

My friend and former U-T colleague Jim Trotter and I traveled to many Chargers games. There were times, when passing through airport security, I would go right through and Jim would be stopped and searched.

But I am white. Jim is black.

And he was flat-out profiled by the TSA because of the color of his skin. No other reason. It happened far too often. We were together. I wasn’t checked once.

No, I can’t know what it’s like.

In 1998, Clark Judge, another friend and former colleague, and I got in a car in New Orleans the Monday before the Super Bowl and drove one hour to tiny Kiln, Miss., where Brett Farve grew up. We found ourselves in a world that hadn’t left Antebellum, one apparently left off Lincoln’s mailing list.

There was a biker bar, the windows covered with Confederate flags. Interior walls, made of plain plywood, were painted in hatred — hundreds of the worst racial graffiti scribblings imaginable.

Slaves first were brought here in 1619. Kiln was 135 years after Abe freed them.

Now, here we are, 22 years following Kiln, and about the only difference is cameras capturing the violence and looting by professional manure disturbers who don’t care about race, color, creed, law or order, but only a reason for theft and mayhem, to make the good look as bad as they are.

Wanna bet the graffiti remains on those walls?

I went to San Diego High in the early 1960s, and it was totally integrated, a great mixture of race and culture, and had been for a very long time. I never witnessed one racial incident.

I did find that, although I dearly loved the music of Motown and R&B, it didn’t make me any darker.

As Jalen Rose so profoundly and eloquently puts it: “I wish white America would embrace black people like they do black culture.”

On Nov. 22, 1963, I was walking across the SDHS campus and was near the tombstone honoring the school’s World War I dead, when I ran into a friend, who was crying. She told me JFK had been shot. She was black.

Since then I have spoken to and covered hundreds of black athletes, from preps to pros, the majority who came from so little, quite frankly, because they weren’t white. Many, I heard, “found a way out.”

I look around now and ask: Out of what? …

Our strategy? We turn on the flame every so often and then turn it off. We have no strategy. …

No such thing as a good INT, but Drew Brees just threw his worst pick. His apology did seem heartfelt, but in my old neighborhood, Drew, who went tone deaf when the right music was playing, stepped on his genitals. …

I’m quoting a lot of people. Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” …

Vic Fangio says he sees “minimal” racism in the NFL. There is a forest beyond those trees, Vic. …

Roger Goodell, conveniently not mentioning Colin Kaepernick: “We, the NFL, believe black lives matter.” If “we” didn’t believe, he’d be Nordstrom’s Commissioner of Suit Salesmen. …

The Rooney Rule doesn’t work. But if there weren’t a racial problem in the NFL, it wouldn’t pretend to exist. …

Anthony Lynn says Kaepernick belongs in the NFL, but didn’t explain why he doesn’t belong on his Judases/L.A. Lodgers. …

Really. Who blackballed Kaep, the Bundesliga? NFL bosses — apologies are running wild, but not from these owners — saw him as a PR and business nightmare. …

During basic training at Fort Bragg, N.C., we had to manage our way through a house loaded with tear gas, without masks. It is impossible to describe — and impossible to fake. …

The NFL has ordered teams to bivouac on their training camp sites, which means many tents, cots and K-rations for those without housing, such as the Judases on the Costa Mesa Lima Bean Farm. …

I believe I own the only surviving copy of “La Cocina.” …

Tony Gwynn told me the toughest pitcher he faced was Nolan Ryan. He batted .302 vs. Nolan, but struck out nine times — 2.07 percent of his career strikeout total. …

Stink O’ The Week Sezment: Bad ass. Please don’t confuse with badass. …

Wes Unseld, the best small center, on the Mount Rushmore of outlet passers, RIP. …

Let’s not forget the great people on the COVID-19 front lines. The United States of America is NOT taking this thing seriously enough. …

I’ve never participated in a photo-op. But I know one when I see it. …

How does a parent react and respond to the little girl of color who last week asked her father: “Daddy, are we going back to being slaves?”

We’re told to talk to our kids about all this. Great idea — except racists talk to their kids, too. …

Maybe Mexico should build that wall. To keep us out.

sezme.godfather@gmail.com

Twitter: @sdutCanepa