On Symposium Day one of the lectures I attended was titled “Real Talk: I’m Not Racist.” The main focus of this presentation was a YouTube video published on November 28 of 2017 called “I’m not racist”by Joyner Lucas. It’s a video meant to unite blacks and whites together but has miserably failed to do so.
The first thing displayed at the beginning of the video is a white male who is wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. I have many Trump supporter friends who aren’t racist. In a video that’s made to fight stereotypes, this is implying a new stereotype that all Trump supporters are racist. 
The video ends with both the black and white personnel hugging. Although many may find that hug very warm and nice, I personally didn’t like it. The problem of racism in America is much bigger than being solved with just a small hug. The video implies that with the hug between these two people, racism has been solved and the white person might not be racist towards the black person anymore. However, many issues need to be discussed and solved before the two “hug it out”.
First of all, black people aren’t in need of sympathy. The hug shows sympathy. What black people need is action headed towards change.
Change occurs when black people start having higher employment rates. Even though America is based on working hard and achieving, there is still racism. There are many black people who try hard but get rejected due to their race. They walk into an interview, dressed nice, well prepared, and still get rejected due to their skin color. When the final employment decision comes down to either a black or white candidate, almost all companies choose the white candidate. 
Change occurs when stereotypes stop occurring. When people hear stereotypes over and over again, they start normalizing them. Only when people stop listening to stereotypes they are able to look at the humanity of everyone.
Change occurs when we get rid of the racial wealth gap. There is a huge gap between the average wealth between different races. White people have 86 times more wealth than black people and 68 more times wealth than Latino/a people. This likely is not a coincidence.
The civil rights act of 1964 did – not – stop segregation. We see segregation in schools everywhere. Black people are more likely to go to a public school because it’s cheaper. White people are more likely to go to private schools because they’re able to afford them.
So no, I don’t think the hug at the end was enough. I don’t think hugging out these problems is the solution to these problems. Having conversations on how to fix these problems is the solution. Being able to fix these problems is what I call a metaphorical hug between a black and white person.