When is a banana peel just discarded waste?

cobrat
Sun, 03 Sep 2017 05:07:32 +0000

It also looks like the state of race relations was poor enough that the subsequent discussion may have failed to make any improvement, or made it worse, possibly due to insufficient diplomatic skill or hardened viewpoints that leave little room for constructive discussion.

One issue with the above statement is that it implies equal culpability for the poor state of race relations when recent events and a long well-documented(notwithstanding prevailing denials/trivialization from some corners of the campus/state/south/beyond) has shown the culpability rests almost exclusively with one side of the fence.

To imply any sort of evenhandedness or a “pox on both houses” as the above may lead some to believe is not only misleading, but a distortion of the historical record and a discredit to those who have been the most marginalized in this issue.

Worse, the marginalized groups can do all they can to be “diplomatic” and more, but if those in the dominant majority refuse to acknowledge or worse, continue to make flippant denialistic “What’s the big deal” type comments, then no constructive conversation necessary for genuine understanding or to even start preparing to take the first steps to resolve those issues can take place.