synopsis/reflection

The event that i went to was interesting. The speaker showed videos, and discused what we found interesting, offening, different anything. The videos portrayed various people speaking on race, race relations, and the basic things that make us different. As interesting as it was i found it all to be a little bit strange in itself. I went into this meeting believing that this presentation would strengthen the bonds between races. Unfortunately i found it to be quite the contrary. The entire presentaion seem to be about segregation, how the blacks and the white think, Why they think differently, and why there seems to be no way to be totally intergrated as a society with different races. The speaker was well aware of the lines that divide and seemed not to have a problem with them. i even believe at one point he said there was no such thing as racism, at least not that you could prove. He made it quite clear that you could not call someone a racist, because no one would admit to being a racist. What i find absolutely great about the whole presentation is that he himself came off to many people as a racist. Personally all i could do during the entire presentation was make small comparisons from what he was saying to the comedic antics of Dave Chappelle. My favorite comparison is the clip of the Oj Simpson trial to Chappelle's stand up. The speaker made a point to compare the reactions of the african american community to those of the white community. The only thing that i could think of was, "black people celebrated too openly when Oj got aquitted, we shoulda kept that to ourselves. (Dave Chappelle For what it's Worth) Which in the clip the speaker made a comment similar to this. At this point i began to really wonder if the speaker himself was actually a racist on some level. I mean of course a man of his stature could never be called out on such a charge but it seemed to me that because he made such an effort to separte the races analye them and not the difference it doesn't seem that he wanted them to get along. as if they shouldn't for some reason. This all kinda bothered me which is why i am not adding any names. i feel no need to attack his character if i simply misunderstood what he was saying. It was all and all good presentation, it offended me and made me think about the issues. I think that makes a good presentation especially if i don't personally agree with what the speaker is saying.