By Shanice Cox

If you were not at yesterday’s Interrace Forum: Retail Me Not you truly missed out on great food and even better conversation. Dr. Tonya Bradford graced us with her thought-provoking insight and down to earth spirit. We began with a clip from the episode What Would You Do- Shopping While Black and then Dr. Bradford proceeded with defining Consumerism, and the “power of the dollar”.  This discussion went from discrimination within the retail market, to understanding the value of the lives of human beings. She went on to explain that although injustice might not affect you directly, as a member of the human race we should take action in regards to retail corporations who take advantage of workers that are of a certain age, race, or gender. Furthermore, Dr. Bradford explained the differences between hyper-consumerism and hyper-loyalty, and used anecdotes of people who are racially profiled that go back to the store consecutively to prove that they do in fact belong and can afford to shop in the high-end retail markets. When the crowd got involved in the discussion, we concluded that society as a whole does not truly value human life if the issues has not affected them, and even so, no one is passionate enough about taking a stand and making a change. Overall, thumbs up MSPS. I can’t wait for the next month.