The Very Least I Can Do

DISCLAIMER #1: I am not trying to speak for anybody, nor do I represent the views of my employer. This is just me, a person who benefits from White Privilege, using my voice because it is the least I can do. And I know I do not do nearly enough.

DISCLAIMER #2: There is not one original thought in this text. Everything I say I have learned by reading and listening to Black (and allied) educators, historians, activists, and friends. If anything here is new to you, learn more about it.

Here goes…

I am wondering if maybe this is not civil unrest, but rather a revitalized uprising over 150 years in the making…not in response to the Original Sin of slavery, but in response to the Great Betrayal of the 13th and 14th Amendments, which promised freedom and access to the full rights of citizenship. Instead, Black people got over a hundred years of state-sanctioned physical, economic, and environmental violence in the form of Jim Crow, the KKK, redlining, Sundown Towns, subprime loans, school-to-prison pipeline, and a thousand other policies and practices that served to keep Black communities from thriving. 

And those communities that managed to thrive despite it all were met with the violence of White Supremacy (e.g. Tulsa Race Massacre, East St. Louis Race Massacre, and the destruction of thriving Black middle class communities through zoning/eminent domain, etc.). What does justice look like in the face of all that history?

What we may call “progress” as far as the advancement of Black people is due to their own talent, skill, intelligence, grit, determination, and resilience in a system that works against them every step of the way. This may result in progress for some individuals, but there has been no progress in the dismantling of the system of White Supremacy upon which our nation is built. This is clearly evidenced by our current President…the living embodiment of White Supremacist payback for daring to think that Black people could finally take their rightful place at the top in this country. 

Black people have given everything to this country…blood, sweat, tears, creativity, innovation, knowledge, love, and even some forgiveness. And yet, they cannot even stand on a corner, walk or jog down the street, sit in their own damn living rooms without the threat of having their lives taken. We must stop the criminalization of being Black!!!!

State-sanctioned violence, such as police brutality on Black and Brown bodies, is but one manifestation of the cancer of racism that has metastasized throughout our society. It is in all of us individuals, in our conscious and unconscious biases, in the benefits we receive through White and/or economic privilege. It is rooted in all of our institutions, causing harm to those they are meant to help, educate, nurture, advance, and protect.  

And sadly, we all feed the main tumor…government-subsidized corporate greed. Rather than subsiding a humane existence for our citizens (what some might call socialism), our government subsidizes corporate wealth. These insatiable corporate entities chew up and spit out the most vulnerable among us, so that we can shop at Walmart and eat at McDonalds and a very few people can get filthy rich. Are we willing to stop feeding the tumor?

I’ve been reading many of the corporate statements of support for the protesters and calls for social justice. To those corporations who have made such statements, I hope you will follow your PR campaigns with actions. Ensure your boards, employees, C-Suite, and supply-chain represent racial and gender equity, as well as fair employment practices. And pay the damn taxes that you rightfully owe to our communities!!!

All this to say that stopping the state-sanctioned murder of Black people is a good start, but we have light years to go before anything like justice reigns the land. We can’t all do everything, but we can all do something…at least one thing each day. Learn, listen, speak up, educate, support, grow, share, love.