LF: ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ Event in Atlanta

If all goes to plan, a few dozen people will gather in the Atlanta, Ga., suburb of Lawrenceville Thursday evening at an event that has awkwardness marked all over it.

For an admission fee of $15, people who don’t have any Black friends are invited to a “Come Meet A Black Person” Networking Event hosted by Urban Mediamakers, a group of independent filmmakers and content creators.

“It’s a great opportunity to start relationships,” Cheryle Moses, whose brainchild it was, told the CNN. “And if you have a relationship with somebody, you are inclined to treat them like yourself. If you don’t have that relationship, then you’ll only treat them based upon what you may have seen or read somewhere.”

A main feature is a “cultural” scavenger hunt to encourage attendees to learn about the black community. An upbeat event announcement on Facebook says: “Ticket includes eats (while it lasts) and two drink tickets for soda, beer and wine. Get there early! Bring your business cards and come ready to experience some new friends!”

“We are not entertainment. We are not props. And this is certainly not the kind of sideshow I would want to be a part of,” wrote Breanna Edwards at The Root.

Moses came up with this idea for their annual party as a lighthearted attempt at reaching out after reading a 2013 study by the Public Religion Research Institute that showed that the social networks of people tended to be dominated by others of the same ethnic or racial background. According to the study, this number was highest for whites — about 75 per cent of white people in America don’t have friends who are not white. For most whites, their circle of friends is about 91 per cent white.

If a white, or a not-Black person, had set up this event — particularly with that name — it would have had racist overtones of objectifying a set of people and setting them up as spectacle.

Moses is Black, and Urban Mediamakers consists of Black artists. That makes the meet-and-greet heartbreakingly naive. The idea that handshakes and smiles in a room might kick-start conversations that will build lasting bridges — well, she deserves credit for trying.

“There are a lot of woke white folks and Black folks that don’t know how to reach out to each other,” Moses told MyAJC (Atlanta Journal Constitution).

If opportunities to socialize were enough to bring down racial barriers, then university students have plenty of them. They could co-mingle for the rest of their lives and we would see equality now. Instead, so many of them end up going their separate ways, seeing vastly different race-based outcomes of success.

Music with its universal language has the power to bring down walls, setting up blues and jazz and soul and so many other genres as perfect vehicles to empower Black voices. Instead they were appropriated for white profit.

If desegregation alone were to work as an equalizer, it’s had time — since the 1960s — to show its effect.

Networking events are, at best, uncomfortable situations peppered with small talk. What happens when you add layers of historical discomfort and fragility to it? What kind of people will attend the event? My guess is it will be those who are already culturally well-versed and open-minded, making this a feel-good event, which is well and good, but beside the point. Moses has reportedly reached out to elected officials as well.

What if the attendees are actually people who need the education most? Those who need to unlearn their ideas of racism? What if a few well-meaning types lumber in and slap on a few racial stereotypes and hear a few truths that are not easy to digest?

Who will the Black people at the event be? Aren’t they put in a spot, burdened with having to say all the right things and in the right tone so there isn’t a yelling match?

Will having an argument make the event a success or a failure?

Hard to tell.

Yet, when Moses tells MyAJC “I am looking forward to it because I believe it will help break the ice for a lot of folks who want to be friends with people who are non-white, but don’t know how to go about it,” she displays a hopefulness that leaves me thinking: perhaps, it can’t hurt.

Or, at least, I hope it doesn’t.

Shree Paradkar writes about discrimination and identity. You can follow her @shreeparadkar

Come and get cozy with people sporting a 73 percent out of wedlock birth rate and a low IQ for only fifteen dollars.

There will be some question in MY mind about which has the low IQ,the blacks,or the whites that will spend 15 bucks of guilt money to meet blacks.

For an admission fee of $15, people who don’t have any Black friends are invited to a “Come Meet A Black Person” Networking Event near Atlanta, Ga.