# data[].attributes.body
Kendi gives an account of the celebratory reaction to the not-guilty verdict of O.J. Simpson, despite some people thinking he was guilty. In what way is the reaction a response to racism in the criminal justice system? How have racism and police brutality made our communities less safe, directly and indirectly? How is such racism related to calls to defund the police?

# data[].attributes.body
Attached is the guide with the discussion questions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ethnic Unity and ethnic hierarchy. The face of ethnic racism bares itself in the question, Where are you from?

# data[].attributes.subject
Ethnic Unity and ethnic hierarchy. The face of ethnic racism bares itself in the question, Where are you from?

# data[].attributes.headline
A celebration that the black community found some justice. 

# data[].attributes.subject
A celebration that the black community found some justice. 

# data[].attributes.body
It would be interesting to see if OJ was not famous and how it would play out today. And money played a role. The criminal justice system being less equitable to lower status groups.

# data[].attributes.body
The events that are happening today give us a great "script" to have these conversations about antiracism.

# data[].attributes.body
We have to look at media and at individuals to consider whose lives are being touched by the information that is being shared with us.

# data[].attributes.headline
Q: Are there any thoughts about the statement Kendi makes in the text about selling out his people? 

# data[].attributes.subject
Q: Are there any thoughts about the statement Kendi makes in the text about selling out his people? 

# data[].attributes.body
Comment: He had all white representation.

# data[].attributes.body
What I loved about the chapter was the innocence he had about what was happening. We all have that innocence to begin with, but then it changes as we get older. At 7 years old, he began to have feelings about racism.

# data[].attributes.body
Will Smith stated that all white people are not racist. However, when black people step out of the community and act or interact with white people, such as OJ they are placed into a different hierarchy. Many people felt he was not a part of the black community. When he was arrested, the media now proclaimed he was black.Malcom X is see as a threat and Dr. King more palatable, but both of their messages are the same.

# data[].attributes.body
The book is so prophetic of what is now happening not just in the world but at MATC.

# data[].attributes.body
Harry Belafonte, the original Bill Cosby, were all out there supporting the Black community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ad you asked anyone in 1968 to pick the British female singer most likely to become embroiled in a race-related TV scandal, no one would have said Petula Clark. Not "Pet". Not pop's prim Miss Jean Brodie to the St Trinian's brass of Sandie, Cilla and Lulu. Not the "Singing Sweetheart" of the wireless era.

Clark's elocutionary voice was first immortalised on shellac in 1949 and filed under "easy listening" ever since, whether it was her first UK No 1, Sailor, in 1961, or her signature anthem Downtown. The latter swam with the tide of the Beatles-led British Invasion to top the US charts in early 1965, helping her become the first British female singer to win a Grammy. That it was also written by the man later responsible for the theme to Neighbours, Tony Hatch, says much about Clark's immunity to the Vidal Sassoon cool of her younger, earthier pop peers: she was an anomalous supper club chanteuse for whom the 60s often shone but never swung.

And yet it was Clark who, in the decade's " year of revolt", found herself at the centre of a media controversy involving race, censorship and endemic bigotry in a newly desegregated yet depressingly divided US. All because she had dared to place her white, English fingers upon the black Caribbean-American arm of her friend and fellow singer, Harry Belafonte.

"It sounds stupid now," says Steve Binder, the TV director responsible for encouraging their contentious intimacy. "But back then it became an international story in Newsweek and Time magazine. It wouldn't even have been an incident if the show's sponsor hadn't said anything. Petula touched Harry's arm and the next thing they went bonkers."

Binder was a 35-year-old pop TV veteran when he was hired by NBC to direct Clark's first one-hour US TV special. The sponsor was Plymouth motors, a division of Chrysler, and the catalyst for all the ensuing hullabaloo was its head of advertising: a 49-year-old decorated US Air Force pilot and former second world war PoW named Doyle Lott.

Her eyes are tearing up, Harry's eyes are tearing up and Petula becomes so emotional that she holds Harry's forearm

Steve Binder

Lott's military record almost certainly had something to do with his evident opposition to Clark's choice of guest star. Once the "King of Calypso", by 1968 Belafonte was using his celebrity to become a prominent civil rights activist. That February, he'd stood in for Johnny Carson as host of the Tonight Show, discussing Vietnam, poverty and racial inequality with political ally Bobby Kennedy, and his close friend, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Belafonte's liberal, anti-Vietnam stance wouldn't have sat well with Lott's Silver Star medal for valour in combat, nor his waiting plot in Arlington cemetery. Whatever his motives - political or racial - from the moment Binder first brought Belafonte's name into discussion, Lott attempted to veto him.

"As soon as Belafonte said yes to the show, I rang up the ad agency to tell them the good news," says Binder. "They said: 'You've got Belafonte! Wow!' Because at that time Harry had more or less stopped doing variety TV. So this was a real coup, to have Belafonte back singing on screen. But then two minutes later, I get another call from a different guy at the agency who tells me: 'We have to get rid of Belafonte.' I was confused. And the guy said: 'Off the record, the reason is Lott's a bigot. He doesn't want a black person on the show.' I was speechless."

Harry Belafonte, centre, with Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. Photograph: Ivan Massar/AP

The head of Chrysler overruled Lott and allowed the network to keep Belafonte on the show. Lott, however, wasn't to be outdone. For the show's filming, he took residence in a green room near the soundstage, following along on a monitor.

The Belafonte sequence was a 10-minute solo spot with minimal staging, climaxing with Clark's reappearance on screen for a duet of her own song On the Path of Glory, a sober lament on the horrors of war. "NBC were nervous," notes Binder. "We had to convince them that it wasn't about Vietnam but about war in general."

Apologies in these situations mean nothing. Inside, he feels the same way because of how I look on the outside

Harry Belafonte

The script said nothing about Clark and Belafonte touching. "It was improvised," Binder says. "The first few takes, Petula walked up and stopped a few steps behind Harry, but I felt it wasn't working. So I said to Petula: 'Just go right up alongside him and stand shoulder to shoulder.' So we do this take and all of a sudden it starts happening. Her eyes are tearing up, Harry's eyes are tearing up and Petula becomes so emotional that she reaches over and physically holds Harry's forearm. And I'm tearing up too, thinking: 'This is great! This is the take!' And then it all blew up."

No sooner had Binder cried "cut" than Lott stormed crimson-faced out of the green room and on to the set. "Screaming," says Binder. "Because a white woman had touched a black man on screen. Seriously! It sounds comical but he was yelling 'This will never get on TV!' and 'We'll all lose our jobs!' and demanding that I reshoot it, which I point blank refused to do. He was literally shouting 'You'll never work in this town again' and threatening to fire me."

'Forget my best interests' ... Petula Clark. Photograph: Photoshot/Getty Images

In his 2011 autobiography, My Song, Belafonte admits he was prepared to acquiesce to Lott's demands, if only for the sake of damage limitation to Clark's stateside reputation. "Perhaps, I told her, we should pick another fight, another day - at least while her best interests were at stake. 'Forget my best interests,' she said. 'What would you do?' I grinned. 'I'd nail the bastard.' 'So we will,' she replied."

Binder and Clark's husband, Claude Wolff, grabbed the tapes while Lott was on the phone, and had a technician erase all the earlier edits. "The only one NBC had, the only one they could broadcast, was the last one where they touched. When Lott came off the phone and found out, he went even more nuts."

The irony to Lott's pitiful wrath was that its ultimate victim was himself. A whole month before Petula was scheduled to be broadcast, it was Belafonte who took the story to the papers and generated a media storm, publicly disgracing Lott for what he described as "the most outrageous case of racism I have ever seen in this business". A mortified Lott pleaded he'd merely been "tired" and had "overreacted to the staging, not to any feeling of discrimination". He also telephoned Belafonte, offering an apology. It wasn't accepted.

"Apologies in these situations mean nothing," Belafonte later explained. "They change neither that man's heart nor my skin. Inside, he feels the same way because of how I look on the outside. He can apologise for the balance of his life but it won't alter the attitude he has today. And a man with such an attitude has to be exposed."

An embarrassed Chrysler further distanced itself from Lott, insisting the matter "resulted solely from the reaction of a single individual and by no means represents the Plymouth division's attitude or policy on such matters". When Petula was finally broadcast on Tuesday 2 April 1968, "the touch" intact, Lott had been relieved of his post and moved in the company.

Clark's acceptance into the US entertainment mainstream continued with a Golden Globe nomination for her first Hollywood musical, Finian's Rainbow, and the following year's summer season at Caesar's Palace. Binder similarly prospered, earning himself a place in rock'n'roll history as the director of NBC's next big TV special, rescuing Elvis Presley from the brink of obsolescence.

Most viewers who saw Clark's hand caress Belafonte's arm that evening in April 1968 probably wondered what all the fuss had been about. Yet within 48 hours, America's racial tensions were violently cast into far sharper relief by a single gunshot in Memphis: King's assassination. One week to the day that Belafonte appeared on prime-time TV screens with Clark hanging on his arm, he was stood at an Atlanta graveside with another female hand clinging to his elbow: that of Martin Luther King's widow, Coretta.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte fought racism arm in arm

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ad you asked anyone in 1968 to pick the British female singer most likely to become embroiled in a race-related TV scandal, no one would have said Petula Clark. Not "Pet". Not pop's prim Miss Jean Brodie to the St Trinian's brass of Sandie, Cilla and Lulu.

# data[].attributes.body
Kendi talks about the racial-ethnic hierarchy and conflicts among White ethnic groups and among Black ethnic groups. "What were your reactions to Kendi’s description of racial-ethnic hierarchies, including a hierarchy between immigrant and non-immigrant intra-racial groups?

# data[].attributes.body
Our belief systems can shape how we think about racism or even how we conceptualize race and others. Catholicism is a good example.

# data[].attributes.body
Holly: The hierarchy within groups. For example, between African Americans and skin color. Lighter vs. Darker. This may be from another chapter.

# data[].attributes.body
In my church, we were inclusive and never talked about the Curse of Ham or any oppressive verses or chapters. We never thought of it as "a color thing."

# data[].attributes.headline
Immigrant/ Refugee experience in the U.S.

# data[].attributes.subject
Immigrant/ Refugee experience in the U.S.

# data[].attributes.body
Marianne's parents were refugees and their family was the only ones in their neighborhood. Marianne's experience coming from a family where her parents were refugees and in 2nd grade she was made to write on the blackboard ignorance a number of times even though she did not truly understand why she was made to do this task.

# data[].attributes.body
I'm African American, and it's hard to discuss race at my church which is in a suburban, mostly White area. Sunday morning is still "the most segregated hour in America."  Several perspectives are common, and when I hear them, I can't help but challenge them. For one, the idea of a Benevolent Slaveholder is repeated yet troubling. When I try to have those conversations which challenge these ideas and bring it back to essential Christianity (love they neighbor), the conversation often ends there, unfortunately.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Most Segregated Hour in America - Martin Luther King Jr.

# data[].attributes.headline
Black Doesn't Have a Single or Shared Meaning

# data[].attributes.subject
Black Doesn't Have a Single or Shared Meaning

# data[].attributes.body
Kendi talks about the conflict in the classroom and the experience. For example, in the ESL classroom the different discussions witnessed amongst black students. It's interesting to listen to the comments between immigrants from Africa and black students from Milwaukee. Interesting how the students saw themselves a separate.

# data[].attributes.body
Africans see blacks from the U.S. as different in regards to their culture(s). Black does not mean you are African because there are many countries in African such as Nigeria and so forth. Kendi points out that race is socially constructed.

# data[].attributes.body
As disheartening as the voices that have established the racist structures are, we also need to focus on the NEW voices that are breaking down the power structures and elevating NEW voices (women, minorities, LGBTQIA+)

# data[].attributes.body
As a young child and to now - the primary messages I've held on to were/are "Love Your Neighbor as Yourself." So many pieces of the Bible seem conflicting and historical... My mind, gut and heart didn't consider the Bible as an absolute text of knowing God.

# data[].attributes.body
Hope is a critical component.

Heartfelt discussions are critical to the transformation we want to manifest, the healing that needs to manifest.

# data[].attributes.headline
Discussion about conflicts within groups including Kendi's example of conflicts in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.subject
Discussion about conflicts within groups including Kendi's example of conflicts in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
The show Blackish on TV offers examples based on skin color. Every episode tends to raise a point about race.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How 'black-ish' unpacks hard topics with humor and nuance

# data[].attributes.body
Another example, observations made while visiting Haiti and skin color. Social realm is affected in that country. Varying levels of social status.

# data[].attributes.body
Arbitrary distinctions about color can be lasting in accord to ones own self-concept. This includes people of all skin colors black and white and everyone.

# data[].attributes.headline
There has been observations made about countries that were once colonies that when they became independent skin color plays a role in status.

# data[].attributes.subject
There has been observations made about countries that were once colonies that when they became independent skin color plays a role in status.

# data[].attributes.body
Another example, Western movies about cowboys and how color is labeled white horse or white outfit is the good couwboy vs. the black horse or black outfit signals the bad guy. Media plays a role in these labeling matters.

# data[].attributes.body
Within the last few days, those of us in the Asian American community have been speaking out more about the racism being experienced in light of the pandemic. And now we're seeing more news outlets giving us a voice and validating our experiences. That's a step in the right direction. (and Happy Lunar New Year today!_

# data[].attributes.body
We cannot be receptive to other cultures until we are  bold enough to leave our comfort zones.

# data[].attributes.body
Racemakers are the people who perpetuate racist ideas and racial divisions. Who are they today?

# data[].attributes.headline
Discuss Kendi's examples of the existence of racism between students from Africa vs. African Americans from the U.S.

# data[].attributes.subject
Discuss Kendi's examples of the existence of racism between students from Africa vs. African Americans from the U.S.

# data[].attributes.body
If King Henry had never written the book, would it have changed the course of history? Or would someone else have done it and we would still be in the same place?

# data[].attributes.headline
In ESL it is interesting to see the various heirarchites. In Milwaukee and the segregation is very visible especially to them.

# data[].attributes.subject
In ESL it is interesting to see the various heirarchites. In Milwaukee and the segregation is very visible especially to them.

# data[].attributes.body
I know who I am. I know whose I am. So, I no longer allow others to define me. I no longer wear the definitions they ascribe to me.

# data[].attributes.body
God is inclusive. He created all of us, in his image, so he created diversity. But people have perverted the Bible to make it fit what they want it to fit.

# data[].attributes.body
Religions are often based on Holy Books. It's true of Christianity and Islam and other faiths. Long ago, many people were not able to read and write, so they had to accept what they were told about what the Bible said, and that person whom they listened to could corrupt the story. Today, people are more literate, but they often still connect with the religious leader rather than the text.

# data[].attributes.body
Observations about the increase of inter-racial violence is hurtful and may be due to the increase in poverty and the current environment. The attack on the Asian woman in Washington Park was disturbing and could be an example of this.

# data[].attributes.headline
Kendi discussed that black immigrants tend to be highly educations and had to overcome obstacles to get to their goals and immigrate to the U.S. Also, Kendi noted Western Africa has more genetics ties to Europe than Easter Africa.

# data[].attributes.subject
Kendi discussed that black immigrants tend to be highly educations and had to overcome obstacles to get to their goals and immigrate to the U.S. Also, Kendi noted Western Africa has more genetics ties to Europe than Easter Africa.

# data[].attributes.body
I certainly have purposely listened more attentively to what people say in their conversations and don’t have a clue as to the weight of their words and how impactful they are culturally.

# data[].attributes.headline
Question 3.Kendi says people assume he could not be a college professor and published writer if also African American. "The face of ethnic racism bares itself in the form of a persistent question: 'Where are you from?'" What were your reactions to this?

# data[].attributes.subject
Question 3.Kendi says people assume he could not be a college professor and published writer if also African American. "The face of ethnic racism bares itself in the form of a persistent question: 'Where are you from?'" What were your reactions to this?

# data[].attributes.body
I'm feeling really grateful for this opportunity to engage in meaningful and difficult conversations with colleagues across departments. Thank you to the facilitators and to all who took time out of their day for this.

# data[].attributes.body
Could we require mandatory readings for students on diversity?

# data[].attributes.body
Social media is a racemaker. Implications for our children and the impact social media is having on their young minds. How do we communicate with our children, how do we set healthy limits, support, encouragement, and teach them how to be in the world, with the subtle but powerful impact of social media. How do we teach them personal agency? Discernment? Critical thinking? Resilience?

# data[].attributes.body
On page 50, Kendi talks about how the “same Bible that taught me that all humans descended from the first pair also argued for immutable human difference, the result of a divine curse.” He talks about the Curse of Ham, and how that was used to justify “expanding European enslavement of African people.” “Racist power at once made biological racial distinction and biological racial hierarchy the components of biological racism.” Proof did not matter when biological racial difference could be created by misreading the Bible.” ----How has the Bible been used to justify racist policies or ideas? Is God racist or is God inclusive? Does your church reflect a racist God or an antiracist God?

# data[].attributes.body
One participant, proudly shared that she does not use any social media. She will not become a slave to it. (A lesson for all of us.) Be the person you wish to see in the world.

Lesson/Advise: Limit your exposure.

# data[].attributes.body
Suppressing the voter turn-out, gerrymandering, stricter voters ID laws are instrumental in maintaining the current power structure (Minority ruling class ruling/controlling the majority.)

# data[].attributes.body
Thank you Myra and everyone! I appreciate being able to be a part of the discussion today. Have a wonderful day everyone!!

# data[].attributes.body
We tend to separate people by what is identifiable. Why? Maintain  Power, prevent unity, and make it easy for the power structure to maintain power. It's the power structure's secret weapons.

# data[].attributes.body
Having definitions is helpful for fruitful discussions & conversations i.e. racism

# data[].attributes.body
Social media and corporate media outlets serve 'the masters', to (conquer &) divide. Echo chambers created continue to divide.

# data[].attributes.body
Chimamanda Adichie has a TED talk on "The Danger of a Single Story" in which she argues that when people hear the same representations of a people repeatedly, they accept that as the official (and even only)story. Traditional media, such as television news, has the power to be that single story. When news reports spend more time reporting on Black crimes than all crime, then people begin to see Black people as criminals, for example. This is why it's so important that all media outlets have diverse staff, people who are able to say, "Hold on. Let's rethink the story we're telling."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

# data[].attributes.body
Fear is another critical tool used by the power class. 'Fear of the other' narrative is alive and well & used in our current milieu.

Money plays are part in this too.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Start on the Personal Journey to Antiracism

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Start on the Personal Journey to Antiracism

# data[].attributes.body
One way to begin on this journey is to think about how you first became aware of race. Children aren't born knowing racial divisions, so what was the experience that made you aware of racial difference? That's where we all have to begin from.