Tuesday Talk
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 21st, 2013
Good morning!
Brought to you by your fave HP :)
Soledad O’Brien Calls Out ‘White People’ Over ‘Black In America’ Series (VIDEO)
Soledad O’Brien addressed criticism from “white people” about her documentaries about race in America in a new video.
O’Brien has hosted five documentaries in CNN’s “Black In America” series. In a talk at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, she said that some people have told her that the documentaries are “divisive,” and that they think black Americans should stop differentiating themselves from white Americans.
“First of all, it’s only white people who ever said that — ‘if we could just see beyond race. If only people didn’t see race, it would be such a better place, and you are responsible for bringing up these icky race issues, Soledad, you should just let sleeping dogs lie,’” O’Brien said.
She continued, “I was like, again, ‘OK, white person, this is a conversation you clearly are uncomfortable with, and I have no problem seeing race, and I think we should talk about race.”
O’Brien signed off CNN as a regular host in March, after the network announced that a new morning show would replace “Starting Point.” She is still working with CNN as a roving documentary reporter, and was also recently named a distinguished visiting fellow at Harvard, her alma mater.
Her most recent installment of “Black in America” came out in December. In an interview with Professor Yaba Blay, O’Brien spoke about people questioning her racial identity because of her role hosting the documentary.
“You know, white people really have a luxury in that they get a range of stories, that they’re not defined by five stories,” she explained. ”So I think that the difference with ‘Black in America’ was the filter did matter. That there are only going to be five stories and we want to know exactly who you are and what your credentials are to be telling our story.”
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Readers: Have an opinion? Blog me.
To my readers in Oklahoma: I was sorry to read about the devastation. I HOPE you and you families are safe and sound.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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May 21st, 2013 at 7:54 am
Thank you Michelle for taking the time to remember us here in Oklahoma.
May 21st, 2013 at 8:05 am
Free Your Mind from “Crowd-Think”
A fascinating and disturbing survey illustrates just how rampant is a phenomenon called “crowd-think.” One thousand Americans were asked to assess two different education policies. Half of them were told that Plan One was Democratic and Plan Two was Republican…the other half were told the exact opposite.
: About three-fourths of the survey respondents favored the plan that they had been told belonged to their own political party—regardless of what that plan actually stated!
What are we—sheep?
Being able to think for ourselves is an essential element of living an emotionally healthy and well-balanced life. Life coach and Daily Health News contributor Lauren Zander weighs in on how we can free ourselves from crowd-think…
WHAT CROWD-THINK IS
When you’re part of a group—especially a group in which each member tends to praise and reinforce the opinions and beliefs of the other members—and you’re asked to weigh in on a situation, it sometimes can be difficult to determine whether your opinion is truly your own or you’re just automatically going along with everyone else.
Crowd-think is Zander’s term for this phenomenon. Crowd-think is different from peer pressure, in which you know that something is wrong (or at least wrong for you), yet for whatever reason you still consider agreeing with it or doing it.
With crowd-think, in contrast, you truly believe that an opinion is your own—even though you’ve never actually investigated the issue or thought it through from beginning to end for yourself.
You’ve basically had your opinion delivered to you—though you might not realize it.
Because of crowd-think, you even may be a zealot on an issue that you haven’t studied with any sort of independent approach. That can lead you toward attitudes and actions that ultimately might create huge problems and cause emotional anguish for you and for others.
WHY WE LOSE OURSELVES
There are two main reasons that people end up letting others in their group do their thinking for them. The first is that people naturally want to be seen in a positive light.
“Everyone has a deep desire to be liked by a group—whether that group is made of family members, friends, colleagues or even folks we’ve never met who post on online forums,” Zander said.
When this desire for affection is even moderately strong, it can obscure any deeper reflections that could reveal differences of opinions—differences that might lead the group to withdraw its approval of you.
Another reason you may stop thinking for yourself is that, when lots of people are stating their opinions in depth, you start to understand why they feel the way that they do.
This engenders feelings of empathy, and that’s fine—unless the empathy clouds your own personal reasoning, making you believe that others’ thoughts are actually your thoughts, too.
ESCAPING FROM THE CROWD
To free yourself from crowd-think, you need to develop strategies that help you separate your own thoughts from the thoughts of others.
Zander’s suggestions…
Don’t accept secondhand “facts” on matters you care deeply about.
Information given to you by other people, including the media, often is biased, even if unintentionally. To ensure that your opinions will be well-considered, you need to verify the facts on which those opinions are based with their original sources.
That’s what good journalists do (and so do good doctors, good lawyers, good teachers and good parents). So why shouldn’t you do it, too, when it comes to the issues that matter most?
Pay close attention to your initial reaction. That immediate intuitive response is the most authentic because there hasn’t been time for your opinions to be swayed by crowd-think.
For example, suppose that you are at a staff meeting at work and your boss excitedly outlines a new sales approach. You have a momentary twinge of doubt, fearing that the approach could damage the company in the long run, but your worry subsides as the rest of your coworkers start agreeing with the boss.
Don’t ignore that twinge! Instead, immediately jot down your initial reaction—it represents a thought that is completely your own.
Once you have captured your thought before it can flit away, go ahead and listen to the opinions of others. Then later in the meeting, when your boss asks you to weigh in, reread what you wrote.
If your opinion has changed by that point, ask yourself whether you have a good reason for your change of heart. If you do not, take a risk and express your differing opinion.
Remember, groups achieve the most when each member is committed to discovering and expressing his or her own truth. “Negotiating in a group is based on openly expressing and defending your point of view,” Zander said.
The group may ultimately decide against your approach, but winning some and losing some is all part of the collaboration process. Whether or not your opinion carries the day, you will respect yourself as a person of honesty and integrity—and so will others.
Source: Lauren Zander is a life coach and the cofounder and chairman of The Handel Group in New York City, which provides life-coaching services to individuals, corporations and schools.
She teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University School of Business and has moderated a roundtable for the White House Office of Social Innovation.
She has been a monthly contributor to Daily Health News since 2006, supplying advice to readers in dozens of articles that help them shed the psychological or emotional burdens that hold them back. For more stories featuring Lauren Zander, click here. http://www.HandelGroup.com
May 21st, 2013 at 8:44 am
Thank you for thinking of us Michelle. I live Moore Ok. This was unbelievable. I have lived here all my life. I am 24. People have called and asked why children were in school during the storm.
It is starting to rain right now but I will continue because I want people to understand we are not “hicks” too stupid to protect our children.
We live in a part of the country called “Tornado Alley.” We live with storm warnings all year long not just in the Spring. We can’t close down schools and businesses every few days because sometimes the warnings are true and sometimes they don’t.
Usually a strong school building is safer than a small home, but in an EF4-EF5 storm the only safe place is underground.
We are no more crazy for choosing to live here than people who choose to live hurricane earthquake zones.
May 21st, 2013 at 8:47 am
For all those who are wondering why Oklahoma houses don’t have basement there are 3 major reasons: #1 The water table is high. There are 22 major ground water basins. The water would seep into storm cellars and basements.
Dampness often leads to mold and fungus. Water pressure can build up, putting pressure on basement walls causing them to give way. #2 The soil. Clay-rich shales, or soils from the weathering of shales, may contain smectite clay minerals that swell up to 1.5 to 2.0 times their original dry volume after adding water.
Over 75% of Oklahoma bedrock units are possible sources for expansive soils. #3 bedrock is prevalent throughout Oklahoma as well. It is especially difficult and expensive to chip away at bedrock. Builders would have to use explosives to make room for a basement.
May 21st, 2013 at 8:48 am
So you humans don’t believe in global warming. Tell that to Dallas later this week.
May 21st, 2013 at 8:50 am
Hey republicans…time to block federal aid…
May 21st, 2013 at 8:51 am
This is NOT the time to turn this into a political debate. People have DIED today. For Pete’s sake show some common decency to the victims and their families.
May 21st, 2013 at 8:56 am
fighting for victim’s rights to have federal aid actually seems very decent. As someone who went through my own area’s devastation from a tornado 2 years ago, I think it’s completely appropriate as praying isn’t going to rebuild the town, money is.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:01 am
Health info has nailed the entire population of sound byte peeps, political and otherwise, you know who you are, the ones who do not listen to Soledad or Cornell West or any other OTW scholar/educator/etc… and do some free thinking afterwards…
Re: my pics, you already have my disclaimer : ) though my self esteem never revolves around commentary, favorable or unfavorable, that’s one thing I’ve learned here, and thank you all for that, I was never a fragile sort but this place has given me the thicker skin that’s sometimes required in life when ‘unfavorable’ is coming at you.
…another thing I’ve learned here (and it’s something I am working on with myself though after I state this, I’ve gotten over it to a degree so why can’t everyone else? Well – you know why, bc your wording and approach DO matter, (though I’ll also add this: no matter how carefully you choose your words, there will always be someone to twist them) and so I’d just like to say that awhile ago, I got over what I perceived to be a specific approach used by RobertRT and Alycedale’s (heated and righteous I guess I would say I called it), now I totally get that the need to ‘play nice’ (mine, I’ll admit it, I employ the nice strategy first in life, not going to change that either, back to R & A though) when there’s nothing nice about what others have done, 99% of that being whites thinking and behaving like we’re king/right/superior/you-name-it – then why bother playing nice, I now read their comments for content and intent (to educate) not with a thought about do they mean me in particular, bc no they do not, I don’t follow racist ‘crowd-think’ and occasionally when I say something ‘white’ they set me straight, I don’t mind, I’m here for the education just as much as I like to impart my two about personal interaction betw men/women, or anything else I make a statement about where my own research has been conducted and has merit. & yes, that is a shout out of kudos to both RobertRT and Alycedale, (/SB you’re rockin’, too, not that any of you need my kudos or appreciation, just wanted to give it).
Off my soapbox again, still waiting for a good dude to stand on one and give out 5 great reasons (at least) why you should all be revering women, what’s the hold up??? RobertRT, or Larry, or MikeTM or Anonz (if you’re anywhere to be found), perhaps you could lead the charge, with just one or two points so the ‘average man’ will know what to do…?
That’s my two for today, Luv, Zen Lill
May 21st, 2013 at 9:05 am
I guess if a disaster happens in a Dem district it is okay to talk money and balancing the budget. But now that it is in a Repub district, we must think of the people.
That is the type of hypocritical attitude that allows the repubs to talk out of both sides of their mouths. We need to hold them to their sick standards when they need federal aid. Maybe the Dems should try and hold back on all the pork additions to the aid bill this time.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:07 am
Oklahomans are good Christians unlike you sick sodomites. These tragedies happen because of people like you causing god to get upset.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:09 am
Uh, Jack, ever hear of Global Warming?
May 21st, 2013 at 9:10 am
That is just dumb, these natural events that have everything to do with the environment you choose to live in, not some higher deity who is concerned about social politics.
Otherwise He must really have a beef with Jupiter then, cause that Eye storm pattern has what been going on for hundreds of years, Jupiter better stop having orbital relationships with the sun.
Don’t go around blaming god for your complete lack of an education.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:11 am
I’ll keep praying for you sodomites.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:12 am
Er, Jack, gee, god gets upset often with you guys in OK…….what gives??!!!
Are you doing the catholic Priest shuffle(riding the romps a little too often)?
May 21st, 2013 at 9:15 am
Jack, I know you holy-than-thou folks down there in the bible belt are serious about your lord, though you could give a hoot about your OTWs.
So about the results of that storm. I guess we could conclude That was MOTHER NATURE, They kicked God out of schools, Those poor children didn’t have a chance without HIM. !!!!!
May 21st, 2013 at 9:21 am
Speaking of the hypocrisy of the right, I read this in today’s Huff.
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WASHINGTON — As frantic rescue missions continued Monday in Oklahoma following the catastrophic tornadoes that ripped through the state, it appeared increasingly likely that residents who lost homes and businesses would turn to the federal government for emergency disaster aid. That could put the state’s two Republican senators in an awkward position.
Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, both Republicans, are fiscal hawks who have repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country. They also have opposed increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers federal disaster relief.
Late last year, Inhofe and Coburn both backed a plan to slash disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. In a December press release, Coburn complained that the Sandy Relief bill contained “wasteful spending,” and identified a series of items he objected to, including “$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies.”
————————————–
Can’t wait to hear their flip-flop logic to ask for federal aid.
May 21st, 2013 at 9:22 am
Republicans hate government spending… till they don’t. Just like how they hate abortion till their daughters or mistresses need one, or homosexuality until they’re caught with their pants around their ankles with a smooth, hairless male intern, taking ecstasy pills.
May 21st, 2013 at 10:21 am
Rebubs if you don’t like the Federal Government, don’t take their money.
May 22nd, 2013 at 1:13 am
But for knowing you, I don’t think I could ever ground to this planet.
May 22nd, 2013 at 7:01 am
Michelle, I want to thank you for reposting articles so we can really express our true feelings about them. Blogs like Huffington Post pretend to provide an environment for frank discussion, but in reality they censor the comments so much one gets a false impression concerning what the people really think is going on.
The rules are set up to provide thought control and revenue via names for ads.
May 22nd, 2013 at 7:50 am
When whites say that they are basically telling Black people to become invisible, so they don’t have to deal with the history of what they’ve done.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:00 am
I love it. White people tell Soledad Black people should stop differentiating themselves from White people. Soooooo it was the Black people who put those signs on water fountains and lunch counters and public rest rooms…….you know the ones that said ” Whites Only”
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:35 am
Soledad touched the surface of the issue, but the supplanting of Ancient Egypt and other Black classical cultures is what props up the gilded age of whiteness. The King Tut exhibition by National Geographic featured a computer-generated Caucasian image of the African pharaoh.
The exhibit also presented a film featuring Ramses the Great and other Black pharaohs as white. We at the NAACP alerted the media to this issue to no avail. The Western world derived its cultural mores from the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, and Ethiopians…the white elite are aware of this and are maintaining a cover up. Use your influence to deal with the real issue, Soledad.
If you own the rights to the show, we deserve a real and incisive explication of Western racism. Let’s not treat this atrocity as a mere commodity.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:44 am
Anyone who attempts to understand terrorism will understand that americans need to be able to appreciate that lynching on american soil that killed thousands of american men women and children became a model for the other terrorist in the world today.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:44 am
….and the issues that Soledad has brought out still linger…..and as long as Caucasians refuse to acknowledge the fact, race will eternally be an issue in America!!
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:45 am
She, O’Brien is out of CNN for a reason like Beck
got taken off, enough about race all the time!
She is half black & half Spanish…that’s why she
pushes that agenda so hard!
People of all races
get sick of talking about it again & again! She
did it to herself…forget about grinding the race
issue for awhile…Roots was on 36 years ago,
remember???
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:46 am
Unfortunately, this behavior is nothing new and makes perfect since if you pay close attention to the condition of our society. We have to be smart and proactive about it.
What do whites have to get out of addressing Black or Latino problems if it does not equate to their financial gain or an increase of power? Guilt? Ms. O’Brien did the right thing by properly negotiating her contract and walking away with her brand.
Kudos to her. Get in, get what you need then get the h**l out, and create success for yourself and others that you would like to help. We must always be striving for financial independence.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:50 am
Negroes co-sign anything coming from Whitefolks. If a Blackman said we should we need talk more about race in this country you would hear negative responses like” how we need to just get over it and move on”.
If whites said that Jesus was Black you ni@@s would be running talkin about ” I told you so” then proceed to tear down any picture of that white imposter Jesus in your houses. SMDH
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:50 am
Keep telling the truth and allow race issues to be relevant in America. Talking about race should help others see that we still have a long way to go.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:54 am
“Get in, get what you need then get the h**l out, and create success for yourself and others that you would like to help.”
Good advice Barry.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:56 am
Soledad…probably didn’t spend one day of her life with anyone she encountered thinking she was “black” in America… that’s what really makes it F’d up. you know.
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:57 am
Sonja, Her mother is an Afro-Cuban. Yeah, they brought us over there too.
May 22nd, 2013 at 9:00 am
A quote from, What White People Fear: by Robert Jensen:
“Liberals are quick to denounce both the thinly veiled and the openly reactionary conservative racism. But what of the fears of liberals? White liberals might reject the very idea that they are afraid, citing their support for diversity and multiculturalism.
But my experience suggests that while white liberals reject assertions of white supremacy, many fear the loss of white centrality. They are willing to renounce the idea that white people are superior, as long as they are allowed to live comfortably in a world where white is the norm.”
In short, whites are willing to debate the evils of racism all day long just as long as they remain central to the American narrative. Whites will never give up their Privilege voluntarily (this we know).
Conversely, parity must be achieved through a mandate of the underprivileged. Whites have already been out-voted in the last election. This is just a taste of what’s to come.
May 22nd, 2013 at 9:00 am
Here’s what I give Soledad O’Brien credit for. She at least had the courage to begin the conversation. (Regardless of what race she is or isn’t.)
How many times have we listened to TV personalities say “We need to start a racial dialogue.” Most of the time this is after a hot-topic racial issue takes place. Yet, the ironic thing is that after this debate has died down no one continues the dialogue unless they are of course talking to family, friends, or commenting on a blog anonymously.
So should it matter who brings up the race topic? Is it not time to begin to have an open and honesty conversation? Are we not tired of generalizations of our race and the disparities among racial lines?
I say yes. There needs to be a national real-deal conversation in this country about racism on a day to day basis until we can open up someone’s / anyone’s eyes to the truth. Yes they have to be open to change but at least we can start somewhere.
You may be thinking nothings going to change or that a talk is a wast of time. And I agree, nothing is certain, well except doing absolutely nothing at all.
Side note: Maybe she could have done a better job of her former “Black In America” series but for me I have to give her credit for trying. How many others can we give that credit to?
May 22nd, 2013 at 9:05 am
F*ck them racist whites hate when other people that aren’t white talk about race. We gotta continue to talk about it because Race is still an issue in this country.
Thank god for soledad o’brien black and latino documentaries
May 22nd, 2013 at 9:06 am
As long as people are ignorant of their prejudice, it is important to continue to talk about it.