A strange dialogue takes place in America on a daily basis. It’s not quite about race, but around it. The various TV and radio personalities spew their ratings fueled rants. The White House plops out carefully crafted press statements. Blogs and the internet spill forth with anonymous dumps of hatred.
All these things have something in common – it’s not really discussion. It’s broadcating. It’s monologuing.
Like so many tough issues we don’t discuss this stuff in a real way in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces. One real problem with that is that it’s hard to shift ones view through consumption of a broadcast… typically one tunes into the broadcast they already agree with. Through dialogue, real in person dialogue, one has to put ones value statements to the test. Hear them outloud, mash them with others, rebuke, rebut, reform.
It’s hard for me to decipher if it’s a failing of our new modes of communication or our modes of communication are the result of our lack of desire to connect. Maybe a bit of both. Either way, the discussion about racial issues isn’t moving along very quickly.
Sure, I have a view about where we are in tolerance and inclusion as a society. Rather than dump that here… talk to me sometime so we can share our views.
