Interesting cultural experience

In pondering what to reflect on this past week, I keep going back to a 3-day national conference on Educating Black Children.  The potential for this conference was great and the ideas which could have come from it are currently in high demand.  However, my experience was not as fulfilling as I had hoped.  I have always considered myself a cultured, accepting, non-prejudiced person, willing to teach any and all children who come into my path.  I was hoping to be uplifted and encouraged for doing just that.  However, this conference proved to be more of a political/historical rally with a flair of Baptist revival.  I found the cultural things very interesting, but the negativity (or reverse racism) began to overshadow all positivity.  I actually became angered during a luncheon speech on Friday that got my blood boiling.  At that point, I turned off and shut down.  My black colleagues I was with commented about her going "over the top."  I was about to call it quits and leave with a bad taste in my mouth, but decided to do one more workshop session with a great author of "What Is It About Me You Can't Teach?"  I was glad to have ended my experience with her as she brought it all back down to reality and encouraged us to be better than we were.  One morning a great speaker (a linguist) taught us about the origins and rules of Black English, which I've tried to touch on in the linguistics classes I teach, but never understood it fully.  I took 4 pages of notes during her 2 hours and was captured by almost every word she said.  So the whole 3 days weren't a total bust.  Overall, it was a facinating cultural experience and it gave me much food for thought.