Is American Red Cross racist?

I think this world has finally lost it. Sometimes I just cannot believe the things that I see or read. Today it was brought to my attention that somebody called the American Red Cross out regarding a poster that they had printed up and distributed which was talking about pool safety. An individual tweeted to the Red Cross that the poster was racist.

Look at this picture. What is racist about this? It depicts several children around a pool. Some of them are engaging in shenanigans and some of them are not.

american red cross racism racist justin timberlake

(Click the picture for a larger view.)

I guess because a larger percentage of nonwhite children are engaging in shenanigans that is what makes the poster racist? But if you notice there are white children engaging in shenanigans. Also do you notice that of the two lifeguards one is black? (probably got the gig through affirmative action some would say.)

The Red Cross, before even asking how the poster was racist, bowed to the request of the individual and said they would immediately remove the poster and have new ones made.

american red cross racism racist

(Click the picture for a larger view.)

See the Twitter thread here before they pull it down.

“We deeply apologize for any misunderstanding, as it was absolutely not our intent to offend anyone,” the Red Cross said in a statement. “As one of the nation’s oldest and largest humanitarian organizations, we are committed to diversity and inclusion in all that we do, every day.”

Really Red Cross? That is sad. On the way to your quick move to not offend an alleged minority you managed to do what is wrong with the world today.

The world has gone crazy. You can’t even say anything without running the risk of it being held against you and being considered a racist.

Also I’ve noticed in the news that Justin Timberlake has had to apologize for something he said. It seems Jesse Williams, who is a black actor, was on the BET awards show and gave an ‘impassioned and moving speech’ in acceptance for his Humanitarian Award.

“This invention called whiteness uses and abuses us,” Williams, 34, said. “Burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil — black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations, then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.”

Justin Timberlake tweeted that he was inspired by the speech and then the backlash started. Many people said things like “So does this mean you’re going to stop appropriating our music and culture? And apologize to Janet too?” and “Did you like the part when Jesse talked about white people stealing from us? That should resonate with you”. Finally Justin responded to one Twitter user with “The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.” but the backlash continued, igniting Black Twitter, which began dragging Timberlake for his perceived hypocrisy as a prominent artist who’s appropriated considerably from black culture yet been relatively quiet concerning the Black Lives Matter movement.

(Does anyone remember this happened with O.J. Simpson too? They said he did not do enough to help the ‘black community’ while others, including himself, said he did a lot by trying to raise awareness that there should be no ‘us’ and ‘them’.)

I have asked in another post will racism in America ever end? Read the post here to hear my conclusion and answer.

See to me I think this is the challenge. As long as you have segregation you will never have integration. As long as you have things like the BET awards and the BET channel and the Jewish defense league and the NAACP and so many other organizations, how can we all consider each other equals? Are we equals or are we not equals?

Some have been crying for years that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a racist organization because blacks are never nominated for major awards at the Academy Awards. Maybe this is true or maybe it is just that not enough black actors have taken a good enough roles? Maybe they have not performed well enough to deserve an Oscar? I don’t know the answer to that. It does seem to me though that having something like BET is indeed racism in itself. I mean imagine for a second if we had the Caucasian Entertainment Network. Imagine how up in arms everyone, including the ‘black community’, would be about that.

For all the work we as a society have done, it never seems to be enough. One step forward and two steps back. We need to go all in. We need as a society to decide if we want segregation or integration. We can not have both. It is not working. It will not work.

I just think it may be time for me to take another newsatorium. Take some time to not look at the news at all. I’ve done it before and it lasted for about three months. The first few days are hard. I want to jump on Yahoo or Google and see what is going on in the world. After a few days it gets easier. But like James Altucher said, “If it is important enough, you will hear about it.” Things tend to get done in the time that I may have been reading about this or that shooting or what happened in a scandal at ESPN or the train crash in Colorado or whatever happens to be on the news.

All the news seems to do is report things that are always not so pleasant and then they do it with a straight face and a smile. It’s sort of disgusting. It’s not just television, it is also print. And all these reporters are so quick to be the ones to say “You heard it here first” or “We report exclusively that…” when instead they should be checking their facts or maybe going in looking for stories that would make people feel good for a change. How about being a news organization that shows the things to make people happy? Where are the stories of the fireman saving the kitten from up in the tree?

For me I know not seeing all of these negative stories it would make me happier. It would also give me time to work on my blogs, 1KSmiles and Wild Side Confections, to fly my drone, to practice my guitar, to work on embracing a more minimalistic lifestyle, ridding myself of some of my extraneous possessions making room for the more important things in my life or to read the long list of books I have been meaning to get to. Someday, right?

There are some news stories that would be important to me. I want to know what is going on with MGT Capital Investments Inc and Solar City and Tesla and Space X, all of which I have a financial or otherwise vested interest in and a few other things. I already know that I will be voting for Gary Johnson so I do not really need to follow the political news stories which are usually just a bunch of lies and exaggerations reported to us by who? That’s right. The news people. The same people who generally just make something up to sell advertising time. Now don’t get me wrong, I am sure most of the people reporting the news are fine individuals. I place the blame on The Companies themselves. It all comes down to shareholder primacy though so it is not the reporters fault. At least not for the most part. Although there are some reporters who just print things in the hopes to be able to say “You heard it from me first.”

So yes a newsatorium is in the immediate future as well as consuming less content created by other people and creating more meaningful, educational and entertaining content myself. Less waiting for the time to be perfect and just getting things done. Fun and tasty stuff like this.

What about you? Do you think this Red Cross poster was racist? Should Justin Timberlake have apologized for what he said? Would you consider doing a newsatorium or do you even watch the news at all? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Would love to hear from you.

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