CNNs Black in America w/ Soledad O'brien: July 19-27

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

When are we going to dedicate ourselves to finding solutions? When are we going to highlight those solution-focused efforts that are taking place now rather than focusing on those deep, introspective individuals who keep re-hashing what we already know trying to find some overlooked statistic?

I don't know what environments that you all exist in but the environments that I exist in do focus on structural and individual (yes, both structural and individual level because we need to focus on both) solutions and preventive measures, both research-wise and practitioner-wise.

I really don't know what folks are expecting. We have all sorts of organizations and individuals, with interests in the black community and social issues, who do more than talk about it.

Are people waiting for a town hall meeting/CNN special format or for some widely publicized efforts? Are people waiting to see some largescale, visible improvement before they believe that something is being done? Are people waiting for the ills of the black community to suddenly be erased? Are blacks suddenly not supposed to be disproportionately impacted by certain social problems? Is every black family supposed to be raising their children better for folks to believe that there are efforts to strengthen the black family and attribute some of our problems inward rather than outward?

I hope those are not what you people are waiting for. Collectively, we need more but that doesn't mean that we don't have anything.