Obama, Steph Curry, and John Legend Event for Young men of Color

Yeah, they would all have good healthcare, jobs that support a family and would never be arrested as teenagers making it hard to have a good career if they could be like Curry born rich or Obama or Legend? (don't care to research his background".

On the other hand nothing wrong with motivational speakers about positive thinking and working hard etc.

 

Black History Month is racist! There isn't even a single day for White History!

 

One of the most satisfying things I've had the pleasure to work on was a marketing campaign for My Brothers Keeper.


The event isn't attended by only black people. In fact, much of it is about reaching out to all ethnicities. Curry and Legend aren't their to talk about their life experiences either - do you know hat MBK even does????

They help bring mentors in to work with minority boys and girls (not men) which is the number one way to turn lives around. They encourage people (many white people) to get involved in nearby struggling communities and organizations such as the boys and girls clubs of america. This changes peoples lives.

These events help create awareness for MBK and get people to volunteer. They are meant to appeal to lots of different people of different colors and that's why star power from folks like Curry and John Legend matter. It would be great if some white celebrities would participate by it's really hard to get any as they have other causes dear to their heart.

 

Hmmm, I wonder why that is.

 

https://www.obama.org/updates/mbka-oakland-steph-curry-john-legend-president-obama/

control + f + "color" = 8 results

I'm sorry, but I don't buy that this event (nor MBK as a whole) is aimed at everyone. If it is, their marketing team is doing a terrible job.

That being said -- I understand (and actually agree with) why they are specifically targeting black male youth. But don't spin me a bunch of bunk that this is color-blind.

I guess I look forward to a day when all of our youth are eating equal amounts of s**t sandwiches and we don't have to single out anyone based on immutable characteristics for help.

 

The mission of the My Brother's Keeper is literally to support men and boys of color. Just like NAACP focuses on black people, or CAIR focuses on Muslims, or the League of Women Voters focuses on women. Specializing on the needs of a particular community doesn't really make it discriminatory. You didn't mention that the focus on men and boys also excludes women, btw.

I can't help how you feel, but I don't think you should feel unwelcome. I bet if you went, there'd be lots and lots of black men there but you'd probably get nothing but smiles. These kinds of organizations want and need allies. That probably explains some of the rationale of finding the least scary black people possible to be headliners -- white people aren't afraid of what Steph Curry might say.

 

Discrimination means different things to different people and even varies depending on context. I didn't use the term "discriminatory" for that reason.

I'd say it's more... exclusionary/divisive.

BTW -- "Muslim" is not an immutable characteristic

Speaking of which, unlike with race, there are more than superficial/socially constructed differences between men and women.

Like I said, I get why they're targeting this audience. I suppose I wish it either 1) wasn't necessary to include race as a criteria or 2) wasn't so on-the-nose about the racial nature of its outreach. Perhaps I'm being a bit over sensitive about the language, but I feel like they could do a better job about opening their message to the broader population while still catering or focusing on those whom need the help the most.

 

I don't say "over" sensitive, but I think it's a little funny to single out MBKA for their racial focus given that America has been doing myriad racially-focused organizations for over a century. Maybe they all rub you the wrong way. Maybe that approach is really weird and I'm inured to it because I've been swimming in this soup my entire life. But whatever. You don't want to be a customer of theirs and that's fine.

 

Probably because the history of this country has made it so the odds are stacked against many of them and so a little help is necessary.

Even the president in his SOTU address realized that the justice system has been unfair against African Americans, time to be a good republican and follow suit with your leader.