A Game Changing Speech by the FBI Director

On February 12, 2015, the day before yesterday, FBI Director Comey gave a seismically important talk about race relations. In a short 22-minute speech, the nation's top cop talked about implicit bias among the police and everyone else, the need to for police to look seriously at their historic role in colluding with the oppression of communities of color, the on-going difficulties/criminality of males of color, and the need for a new type of dialogue. This is the kind of speech that should change the terms of the discussion. My prediction is that now that it is more difficult for people like the head of the police union in NYC to lambast any discussion of police bias as throwing cops under the bus, folks who tend to deny racial bias will simply ignore the speech. This is why this is a critical time for the racial reconciliation and equity community to step forward.

Right now, we need to be pressing folks in philanthropy, religious leaders, educators, and of course law enforcement to start discussing the implications of this speech and the ideas therein.

He also called for more data collection, which is what happens at meetings that use SPEIK* technology. We can see how are experiences and perceptions vary by who we are.

It's just been two days, but I am finding the response underwhelming to say the least.