Is there a recipe for handling racism?

In my view, the recipe exists, can work but needs to be skillfully orchestrated. It also requires efforts on all parts of the spectrum and the parties involved. It must be presented in such way that it makes the old way of thinking both retrograde and “uncool”.

Just like the successful anti-tobacco campaign that unofficially began in the seventies before culminating in the nineties, that made smoking socially unacceptable, someone has to find a way to categorize racism and social bias as totally out of step with our times.

This starts at home, at school, at work, inside institutions, in the entertainment world, via social media and must become part of the contemporary culture. Further, every individual must learn how to respond positively and without any ambiguity against any racist or biased suggestion, comment or innuendo, and it must be constantly cultivated to become a reflex response.

We need to keep in mind that police behavior is just an expression of what the community behind the force really is and think, so we can’t hide behind it. Our police is our face no matter how we try to justify it.

Finally, there is some effort required from those who feel disenfranchised by helping to soften the edges that divide us, by reaching out through behavior changes and assimilation efforts, ever so slightly these might be, towards the mainstream or majority of society to show good faith, help lowering the mountains of distrust, and desire to improve the entire social make-up...