Undeniable growing awareness
Igrew up in a Black neighborhood in San Francisco, along with Vivian, my best friend since the age of 5. Her family was Mexican-American, and my parents were Filipino immigrants. Now we are 67. Just because we grew up with African-Americans through school and adulthood, we thought we knew it all. But we understood so little.
Every since the death of George Floyd, our nation has been in a collective classroom faced with disturbing facts about what people of color endure. Vivian called me after the guilty verdicts against former police officer Derek Chauvin who murdered George Floyd with merciless indifference. Nowadays, cell phone cameras prove that unnecessary force and brutality are common stories.
“Oh, Suzette, I never knew Black parents had to have ‘ The Talk’ with their kids,” said Vivian.
“The Talk” is more than a lecture about authority. It’s about how a Black person is in very real danger with police who might misinterpret movements or attitudes. It can lead ( and too often has led) to physical harm, prison or even death.
Everywhere people now question their own attitudes, language and presumptions. This is a good thing. Too often, being Black is the tipping point against inclusion or opportunity.
“Why can’t they just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps?” Because opportunities are denied. When I relocated to Massachusetts in 2000, I worked for a Boston recruiting firm. I was one of two Asians along with two Blacks who worked for this multi-employee staffing agency. Time after time, the only interview candidates I saw were white.
My African-American co-worker whispered, “Yeah, they think we Black folks don’t have what it takes.”
Client competition was high. Maybe sending out a white person for a job was a safer bet. Or perhaps it was easier to work with those who are familiar. I looked around and the candidates looked like the majority of my co-workers.
Our little gang of four worked against that grain, sending out minorities for potential jobs, and many found successful hires.
But I had a front row seat to observe how much harder it was for a person of color to be given a chance.
No surprise there is a dramatic disparity of net worth.
Average white families are worth eightfold more than average Black families according to a Federal Reserve survey.
How about students who want to be doctors? In 1980, admission by whites to medical schools was 83.7 percent compared to 6 percent for Blacks.
Thirty- six years later in 2016, the figures for admission were 51.5 percent for whites, and 7.1 percent for Blacks, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
African-Americans make up only 13.4 percent of the U. S. population yet the imprisonment rate of Black males is 5.8 times the rate of white inmates, according to a 2018 Pew Research study.
There’s a pattern of closed doors and fear mongering to keep them closed to Black people.
What we refuse to see continues to hurt us as a nation. We have different views on how these matters should be resolved, but listen and learn. They are vital steps to action.