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.
Dana Sussman, deputy executive director at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, joined Cheddar News to talk about Brittney Poolaw, who was sentenced to four years in state prison for a miscarriage she suffered last year.
A Glassdoor report found mentions of "burnout" in online job reviews have increased by 100 percent over the course of the pandemic. Daniel Zhao, the senior economist for the company, talked to Cheddar about the underlying reasons workers have been expressing themselves about the state of their mental health. "That's really a reflection of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for almost 2 years now, and it's really dragged on," he said. "So workers are increasingly feeling like the lines between their work life and their home life are blurred, and they don't feel like they can get that same balance that they might have been able to get before the pandemic."
Tesla's third-quarter earnings report is expected to beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines amid record-high delivery numbers. The electric vehicle giant hit a record high of 241,000 deliveries - strong numbers amid ongoing global semiconductor and supply chain shortages. This segment is brought to you by Webull. Download the Webull app and start learning, sharing, and investing.
Middle school students from across the country battled it out for a chance at being crowned 'America's Top Scientist.' Each applicant had to submit a video to compete in the '3M Young Scientist Challenge' and describe a unique solution to an everyday problem for the chance to win $25,000. 10 finalists were chosen and after a two-day virtual competition, one walked away with the title. 14-year-old Sarah Park won the award, she joins Cheddar News to talk about her invention Spark Care+.
Netflix’s "Squid Game" has been the buzz of the entertainment world and according to Bloomberg, the series has an estimated value of $900 million to the streaming giant. So far, the film has hit number one in each country Netflix operates in.
Disney has announced that it is reworking the release schedule of its Marvel Cinematic Universe like "Black Panther 2" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The delays were reportedly attributed to production issues and the theater date selection process amid the pandemic.
The world of sports media continues to be a white-male dominated industry according to the latest Associated Press Sports Editors gender and diversity report card. For the sixth straight release of the report card, the industry received an F for its gender hiring practices. Jen Mueller, a Seattle Seahawks sideline radio reporter and entrepreneur, joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to talk about some improvements she has witnessed over the span of her career but noted that while change has been evident on some level, much more needs to be done. Jen is also the founder of 'Talk Sporty to Me,' a professional development organization and you can learn more about it by visiting www.talksportytome.com.
