3/29/15 RMB Race Relations

3/29/15 RMB Race Relations

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

A popular coffee shop chain recently started a campaign to better race relations, it backfired, or so I hear. From posts on social media to the chatter in one of their shops, all agree it missed the mark. One lady talks of her personal experience. Baristas speak of how they handle the questions that come up because of the aborted effort. A teacher tells of her school's race training seminar that was a bust and an insult.

I sat, quietly playing solitaire. I held my words, letting them all have their say and when the customers were gone the employees continued conversing on the subject. How often has a child fussed over homework, blind to the lessons it lends?... In some cases putting new knowledge to use, as years go by, and never seeing the connection.

Did the campaign to better race relations miss its mark? Was the school’s training a bust? I listened to five stories that would not have been told, if it weren’t for those “failed” attempts.

Smiling, I see how goodness lingers from the effort to do good.  

Ever thankful,

Loraine