What About the Looters and Violence? The Ultimate Distraction
Keynote Description
How many of us have thought, “the George Floyd death was awful and unacceptable, but the ensuing violence and looting is really hurting their cause.” Or “no way am I going to support abolishing police forces in response to looters and violence.”
Fair, seemingly common sense, responses, no doubt.
Perspective is important, though, when dealing with any challenging issues.
Most people, Black and white alike, including countless community and religious leaders, are outspoken against violence as a means to achieve ends. Indeed, philosopher Immanuel Kant eloquently wrote about not using people as a means to an end. People must only be the end, says Kant. So destroying others’ lives, their dreams, their businesses, or in some cases, hitting people or even killing people, is not ok to most of us. It wasn’t ok to Dr. King either.
But isn’t the discussion of looters a distraction we unintentionally use to avoid tackling the reasons we reached this point in our young nation’s history? How many of us posted on our social media feeds (or read others’ with approval) outrage against looters and violence in response to Floyd’s death? Now how many of those same people expressed the same level of outrage at injustices against Black and Brown men and women in this country?
How many of us talked about Trayvon (17), Breonna (26), Rodney (25), Atatiana (28), Aura (40), Stephon (22), Botham (26) etc. etc. etc. How many of us even know most of these names. People who were shot numerous times, either holding a phone, eating ice cream or simply sitting in their own home watching television.
And how many of us were angered to the point we are about looters when we read that certain police departments had a policy of stopping people for driving while black. Or do we not even remember reading those stories?
Key Takeaways
This presentation will explore why we cannot afford to let legitimate concern over violence distract us from how we got here.
Instead, race and society expert Jeffrey Kass will return us to the discussion on how to achieve a more just, fair, and harmonious society through a theory he calls Ending Racial Distancing.
Jeffrey will take us through the ten prescriptive treatments on how to end the often unconscious and, to many white folks, invisible racism virus. Through his ten-step program, we truly can achieve a society of responsibility and respect, rather the distrust and discord.
How many of us have thought, “the George Floyd death was awful and unacceptable, but the ensuing violence and looting is really hurting their cause.” Or “no way am I going to support abolishing police forces in response to looters and violence.”
Fair, seemingly common sense, responses, no doubt.
Perspective is important, though, when dealing with any challenging issues.
Most people, Black and white alike, including countless community and religious leaders, are outspoken against violence as a means to achieve ends. Indeed, philosopher Immanuel Kant eloquently wrote about not using people as a means to an end. People must only be the end, says Kant. So destroying others’ lives, their dreams, their businesses, or in some cases, hitting people or even killing people, is not ok to most of us. It wasn’t ok to Dr. King either.
But isn’t the discussion of looters a distraction we unintentionally use to avoid tackling the reasons we reached this point in our young nation’s history? How many of us posted on our social media feeds (or read others’ with approval) outrage against looters and violence in response to Floyd’s death? Now how many of those same people expressed the same level of outrage at injustices against Black and Brown men and women in this country?
How many of us talked about Trayvon (17), Breonna (26), Rodney (25), Atatiana (28), Aura (40), Stephon (22), Botham (26) etc. etc. etc. How many of us even know most of these names. People who were shot numerous times, either holding a phone, eating ice cream or simply sitting in their own home watching television.
And how many of us were angered to the point we are about looters when we read that certain police departments had a policy of stopping people for driving while black. Or do we not even remember reading those stories?
Key Takeaways
This presentation will explore why we cannot afford to let legitimate concern over violence distract us from how we got here.
Instead, race and society expert Jeffrey Kass will return us to the discussion on how to achieve a more just, fair, and harmonious society through a theory he calls Ending Racial Distancing.
Jeffrey will take us through the ten prescriptive treatments on how to end the often unconscious and, to many white folks, invisible racism virus. Through his ten-step program, we truly can achieve a society of responsibility and respect, rather the distrust and discord.