My Thoughts on Tim Rice

I brought this up in my Race, Gender, and the Media class. I've always believed that the mark of a great public speaker is one who can step inside your head and really make you think, not only about yourself, but about the world around you.

I definitely found that criteria in Tim Rice. I just finished watching a fascinating presentation by him not hours ago and I'm still wrapping my mind around it.

Here was a guy who addressed many of the issues that no one with any lick of social sense would have brought up in everyday conversation, and he did it in such a straight-forward manner that his pitch was literally driven into you.

We broke into small groups in class tonight and my group really brought up some interesting thoughts. It's one thing to hear an African-American man giving a speech about race and oppression, but to hear a white man do it is an entirely different ball game.

As a white young man myself, I knew I could have been very defensive having my race called out on so many levels, but the funny thing was I found myself agreeing with nearly everything he talked about. I could have just as easily labeled him as a radical, calling him "over the top" and much too zealous about the topic he was discussing.

Yet at the same time, I knew that there wasn't anything I could think up that could deny his logic nor disprove what he was saying. I even found myself wanting to label him "over the top". I'm not sure why. Maybe because I wanted an excuse not to face the reality of racial oppression still going on today. I even started questioning myself: "Am I just labeling him 'over the top' because I'm in denial?", "Is this my denial talking?", "Am I really racist after all?"

Naturally I didn't have an answer for myself, but he definitely hit me over the side of the head with a fresh dose of perspective. I can only hope for more of these cases as the class progresses, but so far I'm pretty sure they'll come.