A short video explaining the history of institutionalized racism and the racial inequality and subjugation of Blacks in America.
Category Archives: Racial Inequality
Color blind or color brave? | TED2014
Mellody Hobson is President of Ariel Investments and an advocate for financial literacy and investor education.
The subject of race can be very touchy. As finance executive Mellody Hobson says, it’s a “conversational third rail.” But, she says, that’s exactly why we need to start talking about it. In this engaging, persuasive talk, Hobson makes the case that speaking openly about race — and particularly about diversity in hiring — makes for better businesses and a better society.
Pledge to Action
Recently, four Black Alumni from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 1988 penned a short, yet strong message and call to action ‘Pledge’. The Pledge was written for and shared with their approximately one thousand classmates.
They asked their classmates “to read carefully and consider acknowledging publicly” the intent and and message of the Pledge.
I offer their message to my blog readers to do likewise, to read carefully and consider acknowledging.
Pledge:
“Recent reprehensive comments of a fellow Naval Academy alumnus, along with the worldwide call to address racial inequality and police brutality have deeply impacted many of us in ’88.”
“We have drafted a Pledge that we ask each of you to read carefully and consider acknowledging publicly.”
“This Pledge is not only about race, but about openly discussing and understanding all our differences as people and offering a deeper level of support for each other in a way that many of us have already come to embrace in our lives.”
“It is about conversation, engagement, and using our influence to help us be even stronger as a class and better friends.”
I will take these 3 steps:
1. Listen to my peers.
- I will interact intentionally with shipmates and have real conversations about our respective life experiences.
- My commitment is not only to hear but also to try to understand. I pledge to listen to my Class of 1988 brothers and sisters.
2. Lead by example.
- I will engage to address any displays of injustice and any statements of untruths.
- If I am in an environment among friends or peers and something insensitive, derogatory, or untrue is proffered, I will reject it and encourage others to do the same.
- I will lead by example. Silence is no longer an option.
- What I can do, I will do.
3. Leverage my network.
- I will use my sphere of influence, an important extension of me, to the benefit of my classmates and the U.S. Naval Academy.
It is critical that we all affirm our commitment to fairness and integrity, and that we carry out our message to the broadest audience possible.
One of their Naval Academy classmate wrote an article that appeared on the website www.medium.com where she pledged to do the following:
“I recognize that we are men and women of action, and only through our actions can we effect a change.” She wrote. “Because it is not enough to only recognize and speak against the mistreatment of our brothers and sisters who served alongside me, I commit to you that I will also engage on your behalf.”
“What I can do, I will do. I commit to each of you to serve alongside you.”
References:
Understanding the Black Experience | Psychology Today
“Can a White Person Understand the Black Experience? Layers of pain, mistrust, and taboos keep people divided along racial lines.”
Having frank discussions about or asking questions about racism and injustice is challenging for many well-meaning people. They simply don’t know how to approach or “connect to our fellow human beings who are from different ethnic/racial groups and cultural traditions”.
This is particularly difficult when there are over 200 years of racism, injustice and oppression between groups; and, it is difficult while significant social, health and economic inequities remain.
Without an American and world history lesson, it’s safe to say that there are many reasons for discomfort on both sides. This is the major reason why most White people do not understand the African American experience in America.
“Yet, making an authentic connection with another person means understanding, empathizing, and being able to see the world through their eyes.” And, it is hard to imagine that people of color are living a completely different experience in America simply by virtue of their race, ethnicity or gender.
Racism hurts.
As much as people of color adopt a stoic attitude and pretend that racism does not impact their psyche, repeated and persistent racism can be traumatic. And it hurts doubly so when those around refuse to acknowledge the experience and its potential impact. Well meaning people tend to view an experience as only a single racist occurrence, rather than understand that the incident adds to a lifetime of accumulated experiences and frustrations.
People of color do not want other people to discount their experiences or tell them that they’re being overly sensitive. So if you are a White person patiently waiting for a “Black person to spontaneously share their experience, you may be waiting a long time.”
References:
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culturally-speaking/201408/can-white-person-understand-the-black-experience
- Carter, R. T. (2007). Racism and Psychological and Emotional Injury: Recognizing and Assessing Race-Based Traumatic Stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 13-105.
- https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/being-black-in-america-shouldnt-feel-like-a-overwhelming-burden-opinion/ar-BB15jkne
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/19/upshot/race-class-white-and-black-men.html
Ken Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck, joins “Squawk Box” on racial inequality and corporate CEO using their influence to remove barriers to opportunities in America
Silence is not an Option
“We have to stand together with the victims of murder, marginalization, and repression because of their skin color, and with those who seek justice through protests across our country.” Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream
Many Fortune 500 corporations and their CEOs have released statements condemning police brutality and racism within American society.
In my view, most of the statements or pledges to fund Black organizations are nothing more than marketing statements and platitudes created by corporate marketing and legal teams trying to position their organizations on the moral and politically correct side of this legitimate protest. Words don’t change much, actions do!
One glaring exception is the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s press release. Their statement stands as one of the few exceptions to the norm:
Silence Is NOT An Option (by Ben & Jerry’s)
“All of us at Ben & Jerry’s are outraged about the murder of another Black person by Minneapolis police officers last week and the continued violent response by police against protestors. We have to speak out. We have to stand together with the victims of murder, marginalization, and repression because of their skin color, and with those who seek justice through protests across our country. We have to say his name: George Floyd.
George Floyd was a son, a brother, a father, and a friend. The police officer who put his knee on George Floyd’s neck and the police officers who stood by and watched didn’t just murder George Floyd, they stole him. They stole him from his family and his friends, his church and his community, and from his own future.
The murder of George Floyd was the result of inhumane police brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. What happened to George Floyd was not the result of a bad apple; it was the predictable consequence of a racist and prejudiced system and culture that has treated Black bodies as the enemy from the beginning. What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis is the fruit borne of toxic seeds planted on the shores of our country in Jamestown in 1619, when the first enslaved men and women arrived on this continent. Floyd is the latest in a long list of names that stretches back to that time and that shore. Some of those names we know — Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King, Jr. — most we don’t.
The officers who murdered George Floyd, who stole him from those who loved him, must be brought to justice. At the same time, we must embark on the more complicated work of delivering justice for all the victims of state sponsored violence and racism.
Four years ago, we publicly stated our support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Today, we want to be even more clear about the urgent need to take concrete steps to dismantle white supremacy in all its forms. To do that, we are calling for four things:
First, we call upon President Trump, elected officials, and political parties to commit our nation to a formal process of healing and reconciliation. Instead of calling for the use of aggressive tactics on protestors, the President must take the first step by disavowing white supremacists and nationalist groups that overtly support him, and by not using his Twitter feed to promote and normalize their ideas and agendas. The world is watching America’s response.
Second, we call upon the Congress to pass H.R. 40, legislation that would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. We cannot move forward together as a nation until we begin to grapple with the sins of our past. Slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation were systems of legalized and monetized white supremacy for which generations of Black and Brown people paid an immeasurable price. That cost must be acknowledged and the privilege that accrued to some at the expense of others must be reckoned with and redressed.
Third, we support Floyd’s family’s call to create a national task force that would draft bipartisan legislation aimed at ending racial violence and increasing police accountability. We can’t continue to fund a criminal justice system that perpetuates mass incarceration while at the same time threatens the lives of a whole segment of the population.
And finally, we call on the Department of Justice to reinvigorate its Civil Rights Division as a staunch defender of the rights of Black and Brown people. The DOJ must also reinstate policies rolled back under the Trump Administration, such as consent decrees to curb police abuses.
Unless and until white America is willing to collectively acknowledge its privilege, take responsibility for its past and the impact it has on the present, and commit to creating a future steeped in justice, the list of names that George Floyd has been added to will never end. We have to use this moment to accelerate our nation’s long journey towards justice and a more perfect union.”
“Bravo Zulu” / well done to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Source: https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/dismantle-white-supremacy