source: www.theroot.com
I recently found this on Facebook. It was posted by my fraternity brother Siafa Lewis. All he said was this was a great watch/listen if you have 15 minutes.. Now I am asking you if you have 15 minutes, I think you would be glad you watched it. It’s a very powerful message, and as Mellody Hobson points out, “A topic that many people don’t want to address. It is the equivalent of touching the third rail…”
Here are some things to consider as you watch:
– Are you comfortable being uncomfortable?
– Do you treat people fair?
– Can you embrace diversity to grow as a person?
– Are color blind or color brave?
Spike,
I am often the only black female in many meetings and conferences that I attend. Frankly, That has been my situation most of my life. Although I grew up in an urban area, my parents took great measures tomake sure that I had experiences that nmany of my friends never had. We traveled and I had gymnastics, dance, clarinet and even charm school lessons. These experiences shapped who I am today.
I can attest to the difficulties and uncomfortableness of having these conversations. And I will admit that, in the past, I let those feelings intimidate me. I didn’t want to be seen as the “Angry Black Woman” or the “Sensitive Black Woman”. I don’t know what happened but I decided that I was missing out on opportunities to have positive influential conversations with people of all races and genders.
So I decided to do just that. Guess what happened….? People were uncomfortable. You know me and you know that I am not threating, militant, angry and/or overbearing but people where stuttering, avoiding my eyes and tripping over themselves to tell me about all of their black friends. I almost let their discomfort make me uncomfortable. Instead I pressed on and it took a while but now that group of people are comfortable (kind of) having honest conversations about race and race relations.
I agree Spike that we can’t get truly comfortable until we get comfortable being uncomfortable. Thanks for sharing this clip.
P. Moore