Baratunde Rafiq Thurston's TED Talk

Baratunde Rafiq Thurston wears many hats.  All of them interesting ones, but, before we get to that you need to see his TED Talk, which can be found right here:"How to Deconstruct Racism, One Headline at a Time".

It's a little over 16 minutes long.

Go ahead.

I'll wait.

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Finished?  It’s GREAT, RIGHT!?

I know!

TED introduces Mr. Thurston, as thus, "Baratunde Thurston has worked for The Onion, produced for The Daily Show, advised the Obama White House and cleaned bathrooms to pay for his Harvard education. He's the host of the iHeartMedia podcast Spit, wrote the New York Times bestseller How to Be Black and serves on the boards of BUILD and the Brooklyn Public Library. He makes media, delivers keynotes and promotes action with his unique blend of criticism, humor and optimism. He's most invested in topics of race, technology, democracy and climate, because the hard stuff has already been solved."

I find this worthy.  And, in these trying times, inspiring and hopeful.  COVID-19 will be the harbinger of a great many social and economic upheavals—but these upheavals are long overdue.  Inequality, systemic racism, hunger, poverty, healthcare, exploitation by the rich, education, injustice—these are things that were part of the old normal.  That old normal did not work for a great many people.  We must do better and now is the time to do so.  We have a chance to rebuild as we reopen (sensibly, scientifically).  The status quo doesn’t work now.  The truth is it didn’t work then, at least not for all.  It is a shame that progress has to look like destruction, but now is the time to rewrite the playbook.  NOW is the time to rebuild the whole narrative.

"We change the story by changing the action."

It is beyond time to change the story.