Thursday Thoughts; Racial Climate of America

By / / The Mind Of KingC / eric holder, mellody hobson, nation of cowards, racetogether, racial climate, thursday thoughts

It’s Thursday …

And the Racial Climate of America is HOT!!

Shout outs to The Nation of Cowards – the term Eric Holder used to describe Americans when it comes to discussing the subject of race.

“In things racial we have been and (I believe) we continue to be a Nation of Cowards.” – How on point and how prophetic were these words; spoken way back in 2009; Before Trayvon Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman; went to trial and got off! This was before Mike Brown was gunned down by Darren Wilson, and was not indicted. This was before Eric Garner was choked to death, only to see no indictment again for the officers who murdered him.

Meanwhile, we’ve also seen so many Americans take to social media and express Support for people like George Zimmerman, Darren Wilson, and Several other Police officers who have murdered Several other unarmed black men. It sends a message that a vast majority of Americans support the murder of black men; for ANY reason. It sends a message that the perspective of the black community – is Still Separate and Unequal; just as Eric Holder spoke about in this Controversial speech so many years ago.

(Read more about it on CNN – Eric Holder, US a Nation of Cowards)

mellody hobson addresses the racial climate of America in #RaceTogetherJust a few weeks ago, Mellody Hobson began talking about the need for America to have a discussion on Race.  In case you don’t know of her, she is Married to George Lucas; and is currently the Chairman of the Board for Dreamworks. She’s also boardmember for Starbucks, who followed up her TedTalk, with an idea to #RaceTogether – which was met with an immediate backlash because, who wants to talk about Racial Issues over Coffee? Who wants to discuss these topics with a Barista!

Which… if I were a barista I’d be somewhat offended at the crass responses of the Public; to speak so assumptively as if the people working for Starbucks are not versed enough to engage in a conversation on Race. It’s mighty assumptive; It’s mighty dismissive. It’s mighty pre-judgemental.

And, It’s also, cowardly.

 

Here are some ‘tweets’ from the still ongoing discussion –

https://twitter.com/JoeTurner212/status/578282171980349440

https://twitter.com/jfgroves/status/579014272623230976

https://twitter.com/TJRedhawke/status/578489284837048320

While on a bit of a hiatus I have been looking over the landscape – there is plenty to discuss and plenty to talk about.

But are we man (or woman) enough to talk about it? Are we Brave Enough?

Why can’t we discuss these issues in a way where we do not insult and/or offend others?

You know that’s what happened though; Videos were put together bashing the concept; by Ultra Conservative Outlets like BlazeTv – which coincidentally reminds me of the KKK’s desire to Burn things up; Not sure if that is a coincidence or – a hidden symbolic message.

Anyways once again it seemed to Rub America the wrong way – and I don’t just mean white America; Black America didn’t seem to ‘warm’ to the concept either. For those who follow #BlackTwitter you saw many of the problems that so many had with this campaign.  However it wasn’t due to a resistance to talk about race;  it was more along the lines of questioning the motives.

Does Starbucks REALLY want to discuss race relations and DO anything substantive to Cool the Racial Climate of America?

Or is this just for Publicity?

Well a few short days after Launching the campaign; their social Media manager resigned; and They pulled the campaign the weekend after rolling it out. The CEO did claim that his company will continue to work towards being a major player in Healing the wounds of racism; but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.

All I know is, it was a Brave move – but unfortunately, this still is, and really always has been – a Nation of Cowards.

We Can do better America.

We Must!

The Racial Climate of America continues to boil … we cannot ignore the pot on the stove; we must turn the fire down! Any steps toward making that happen are steps that I support. However once again social Media (the place where people anonomously say racist things; and are sarcastic about racism; because most are too cowardly to say it aloud….) we see that we have a problem.  However, there is always hope – and it’s going to take people standing up to people to create a better, more loving society – with a much cooler racial climate.

*Update from 4/13/2017 – More articles Related to the Racial Climate of America:

I’m not so sure we’ve paid attention to how serious this issue is. Already, the ‘new administration’ is moving us in a new direction. As they attempt to be everything anti-Obama, they’re setting up the nation for a possibility of wars on multiple continents at the same time. Our racial divide, may have weakened us for good. Will we recover? Or is it already too late?

*Additional Update, May 22, 2018 – 

Be sure to also take a look at recent incidents in 2018, showing that this ‘Race Together’ idea may have been ahead of it’s time. How places of business’s employees are treating customers, truly should matter. Read : Racism at Starbucks: Doing Business As Usual & also More On the Trump administration Making America Garbage Again; We are reverting.

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