This week marks the ninth week of protests across the country as demonstrators demand tangible changes to the racial divides that have plagued the U.S. since its inception. Along with calls for equality have been calls to defund police, who are often seen as enforcing laws unequally.
However, Pastor Miles McPherson said accepting people's differences needs to be the goal, rather than choosing sides, like pro- or anti-police.
The NFL player-turned-pastor's 2018 book The Third Option: Hope For a Racially Divided Nation has regained national attention as people look for ways to sort through ethnic, racial, and other cultural differences that are tearing at the seams of America's social stability.
"The third option, which is what the book is about: how do we honor and give value to what we have in common? We have more similarities than differences," McPherson told Cheddar.
McPherson, the pastor of Rock Church in San Diego, California, said that there are ways for people to avoid offensive "blind spots" they may have in order to improve relations among people with varying backgrounds.
"If we can come to the table and talk about the things that we agree on, start with those things versus focusing on the differences we have, we can make more headway," he explained.
Racial division in America is practically embedded in the genetic makeup of the country, but for McPherson, the path to understanding isn't in avoiding differences but embracing and respecting them.
"If you have people in your life that are of a different ethnicity than you, different culture, the best thing to do is to sit down and ask if there are things about you that are offensive that you don't know about," he said.
For McPherson, the father and son of police officers, improving relationships between communities and police departments is also important because he understands how mischaracterizations based on job association or racial makeup can cause even more division.
"I think it's very important for us to not categorize a group of people as all bad or all good," he said. "There are good cops and bad cops."
Perhaps the most critical point for social progression in America, according to McPherson, is allowing people to "make mistakes" as we're "all on a journey" to understanding and accepting our differences.
"If we can give each other that grace, we can get further down the road," he said.
This year on Black Friday, the National Basketball Players Association launched a traveling NBPA-branded holiday pop-up called 'NBPA 450 Gives.' This was a 14-day long experiential and digital activation showcasing the best gifts for this holiday season, featuring items from black-owned businesses to celebrate Google's black-owned Friday initiative. JD sat down with Brooklyn Nets player, Blake Griffin, who helped launch this initiative.
The one-hour special 'Cannabiz: Legalization Goes Mainstream' explores the state of marijuana. Cheddar News is joined by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Village CEO Dan Pettigrew, and many more.
Bitcoin is still struggling to hold $47,000 and is well off from the near $68,000 high it saw in November. As the Federal Open Market Committee wraps up its two-day monetary policy meeting, some crypto investors are worried as they wait for news on policy. Shiv Madan, CEO of Moonwalk joins Cheddar News to discuss what's in store for the industry.
After becoming the must-have app in 2020, TikTok continues to be a dominant force in the music industry. According to TikTok's 2021 music report, 430 songs exceeded 1 billion video views on the platform this year, three times as many songs as last year. TikTok's music editorial lead, William Gruger, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
The Trevor Project released its latest extensive peer-revied study examining hormone therapy among transgender and nonbinary youth. The article is the first large-scale study to examine the relationship between receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy and rates of depression and suicide risk. Jonah DeChants, a lead research scientist for The Trevor Project, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
'And Just Like That' viewers we're left speechless after Carrie Bradshaw's 'Mr.Big' suffered a heart attack post-peloton ride and died in the show's premiere episode last week. This death by peloton caused a real-life hit to the company's stock, but it appears peloton has already bounced back. Tiffany Rolfe, R/GA's Global Chief Creative Officer, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
