Thank you for this thoughtful post on such an important topic. I too am of the mindset that if you don’t have a solution be slow to stir up the pot with criticism because it is easy to criticize and harder to fix things.

I think that people tend to get 1.) angry and thick-skinned after a long time and lose that sense of hopefulness that comes through so clearly in this post 2.) jaded after years of seeing the effects of racism-so much so that they look for signs of it 3.) resentful of their own past experiences that they then project onto others especially the youth (this is frighteningly painful) and also 4.) genuinely paralyzed because they don’t know what to do. But commenting criticizing gives them a sense of power that at least temporarily mitigates that sense of powerlessness.

Regarding the Citizen Schools program with childhood obesity, I think that you can never start too early giving young people tangible skills that will open their minds to career paths and possibilities. And starting at a point when the mind is fertile and open and before the attitude goes bad or peer pressure gets to kids could actually be a smart strategy. I took a French class in the third grade and that forever endeared me to the French way of life. I traveled to Paris for the first time in the eighth grade and once I was an adult, began making yearly trips to the City of Light. This was all because of exposure at what some would call an age where I was totally oblivious. Clearly I was not. I am now integrating travel into my public relations strategies and business development when going after new clients.

If other professionals think this program could have been continued or wrapped around the participants to say offer job opportunities down the road, that is something that should be discussed and brought up. Often times ideas don’t even occur to people and we assume that they do.

I think it is up to us who are not jaded (yet!) to keep up the good fight and keep the ball rolling and offer solutions and further the conversation as you are doing with this article.

Thanks for the post.

Amanda Miller Littlejohn
@amandamogul
@mopwaterpr

I appreciate that you focus on solutions rather than grievances. I think it’s helpful and necessary to address issues of diversity, even though (and especially because) it makes everyone so uncomfortable. But, as you said, pointing out the problems without offering solutions doesn’t help much.