WHO GAINS BY PEDDLING IDEA OF “RACIAL CRISIS”?
Is America in 2015 facing a crisis regarding racism? Major forces in the corporate world apparently want you to think so. Starbucks Coffee has combined with USA Today to launch “Race Together” in order to force unsuspecting readers and coffee consumers to face difficult questions about discrimination and oppression. The formal announcement declares: “Racial inequality is not a topic we readily discuss. It’s time to start.” But the real question should be by what standards has racial inequality gotten worse. We have more black success stories than ever before, with rates of police shootings and crime going down everywhere, not up. How do major companies, or the country at large, gain by convincing the public we’re facing some huge racial breakdown? Nearly all Americans long to move past bigotry, but it’s hard to see how talking endlessly about racism is supposed to help us with that process.