I have wanted this blog to be about the value of communications as a resource that can contribute to the success of a business or organization. This morning Scott Simon interviewed Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen on NPR’s Morning Edition Saturday reminded me there is far more than that in communications.
As the only mixed race comedy team when it was formed in 1969, and the only such team ever since, these two guys did more than rock the houses they played until 1974. As I listened to them speak with Scott, as bits of their routines played that as the 1970s unfolded, it occured to me that their act showed communications’ higher purpose.
The laughs helped to crack the cultural granite that had for so long maintained the racial divide. Once cracked, dialogue could ensue and dialogue — the most authentic form of communications — could follow. Their act did not endure. But in some imperfect way, they helped catalyze the dialogue between Black and White that has.
How else could we have the Barack Obama - John McCain act? one of them asked Scott Simon. Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White by Tim Reid, Tom Dreesen, with Ron Rapoport (University of Chicago Press).
Tags: Communications, NPR Morning Edition Saturday, race relations