Oprah’s Town Hall: After Imus, Now What
At about the one minute mark–listen to Dr. Robin Smith.
Well it’s really that this is a spiritual issue, it really is. There is a hole in the soul of this country. And so if we really want to address what we need to do, Don Imus was a–he’s a symbol–he’s a symbol of how sick we are. He’s a symbol of the self-hatred, not just in African-Americans, but in White America. And White-Americans may be wondering, “is this really my issue?”…
…What we’re not looking at is what systemic oppression is really about. And it is about this. If there is garbage, and you serve garbage regularly for a meal…at first it tastes terrible, it’s awful, it stinks, it makes you sick. But when you have it long enough and I serve it to you well enough, and sometimes even dress it up with pretty plates and fine linen–it begins to trick your mind. And your spirit. And make you think that that which is toxic and poison actually starts to taste okay. It’s like serving cyanide and calling it Kool-Aid…
…That is the real issue, and that’s why I said it’s a spiritual issue. We’ve got to ask ourselves questions like, “what’s artistic” and “what is the right to free speech for?” What is freedom because as we look at what it is to be emancipated, it is not emancipation to tear down another human being…
…If I eat away at his soul, what I don’t know is that my own soul is being poisoned at the same time.
Every time she takes the stage, Dr. Robin just speaks life into the human spirit. I am in awe of her well-spoken, heart toward hope kind of being. Wow. I would like someday to be that articulate, that poised, that smart, and yet that generously empathetic.
0 Responses to “what a beautiful soul.”