Thanks Dr. Frymer for an excellent salon.

Getting past the defensiveness is one of the hardest things in all of this. People put up huge boundaries and stop listening. Racism is a word that creates such extreme responses. But we can’t get beyond it by pretending it doesn’t exist. We just need to get at it by making everyone aware of how they participate in this process, usually unknowingly. It isn’t to blame these individuals–its just to create awareness of the ways in which we are both participants in this process and how the process involves mechanisms that we need to identify to target for change.

Instead, as I say in the preface of my book, we scream at Michael Richards and others who make bigoted comments, and ignore all the systemic features of racial inequality. Corporations never get accused of racism because their participation is much more subtle, is by the ‘rules’, and rarely gets any awareness.

Perfect description. It is frustrating. I’m glad I asked. :)

Whether he has (or will find) the political courage to do so remains at question, but at least there is a possibility that he will.