Black Tie Lounge

I have about 60 million thoughts in my head but here is one. While on duty at the youth center waiting for the kids to show up to our Saturday session I caught an interview on C-Span's Washington Journal with Michelle Alexander ,former ACLU Director of Racial Justice. I never turn to C-Span and I'm not even sure why I tuned in, but she was showcasing her new book The New Jim Crow , which she argues that mass incarceration in the form of the War on Drugs has replaced Jim Crow just as Jim Crow replaced slavery in the past. The War on Drugs has disproporationately targeted young black males in the inner city, labeled them as felons and subsequently denied them the right to vote, access to education, employment, housing, and public benefits. The issue here is that ridiculous mass proportions of black males, which constitute much of the prision populations, are incarcerated have hardly any record of violence but are instead labeled a felon because of marijuanna possession. She draws...

The course that I thought was so riveting is now becoming less of such. This is probably because the questions I ask people just give blank stares as if I'm speaking Chinese, African what have you. I think it is more of a self-confidence thing. I have a high need for feedback and when people don't say anything I start thinking something is wrong with me. Silence makes me nervous for some reason. If that last sentence was a lead to an article I would have gotten absolutely no coverage. So glad I can have a forum where my writing is not being judged. My question today is does PR add value to society? Should it seek to help make society fully functional? We can see now that the consequences of a corporate culture of greed and self interest is finally bearing bitter fruit for so many industries. So now the public is demanding that CSR be the very core of business. But beyond that should PR seek an orientation to make society fully functional? This was the argument in class tonight....