Racism? You’ll be the judge
Earlier this year, I told readers I was working on columns about racism and discrimination.
I put those columns on hold as COVID-19 swept the nation and dominated the news. It was simply not the right time to bring those columns to print as people worried about life and death.
But in light of the national conversation about police brutality and systemic racism, I decided this would be a good time to write those columns and have what President Barack Obama called “a teachable moment.”
So this column serves as a bridge to two upcoming columns I will present in the next three weeks.
I believe the more we know about what a person thinks is discrimination, the better off we are.
Everybody has felt discrimination at some level. I have had many readers write or call me about the discrimination they experienced as Italians, Irish and Polish people.
And those incidents stay with you, however minor they may appear to someone else.
I have a reader who still remembers an incident that happened 50 years ago at camp when someone yelled “hey Jew-boy” as he walked by. He admits it is the only overt anti-Semitic experience he has had, but it stuck with him.
So racism and discrimination is not something black people alone experience and, quite frankly, black people can dole it out with the best of them.
But black people have borne the brunt of extreme racism and extreme discrimination for centuries.
Like Michael Jefferson wrote in a recent op-ed in the New Haven Register, “contempt, distrust, fear and sheer hatred for black people — and particularly black males — was tightly interwoven in the fabric of American society long before the birth of the Republic.”
He is right. It has been so severe — and so deeply rooted in American culture — I doubt many people understand what black Americans go through and — for the most part — have to take in stride as part of their everyday life.
And that is what this column is all about.
Are black people really experiencing discrimination and racism day-to-day when they shop or conduct business professionally — or are they seeing the ghosts of discrimination and racism from centuries of oppression?
In my last column, I told readers that it is what you don’t see that is driving the protests and anger across the nation.
I will write about two incidents where I felt I was blatantly discriminated against: one at the selfcheckout lane at a supermarket chain and the other by a black educator at a school in Fairfield County.
In each case, I will lay out the facts as I know them. I will support my cases with a timeline that includes emails, time responses, phone calls, surveillance tape, newsprint and my podcast.
And there will be no dispute because what I will present is in black and white from both parties and not dressed up with misdirection.
Then, I will put the gavel in the reader’s hand and let you be the judge.
Was I discriminated against? Maybe I am wrong. Maybe because I am black, I am too sensitive and I perceived discrimination where none existed.
But in both cases, my demand to be treated fairly was ignored. In one case, it is still being ignored and it took the threat of a lawsuit in the other to get any reaction.
By then, the damage was done; the message that was sent to me was perfectly clear.
I have already gathered outside opinions as to whether discrimination was involved. I will share those thoughts when I write the columns.
But the purpose is not to point fingers, expose or go after any one entity and brand them as racist; if I wanted to do that I could already have filed lawsuits and used my podcast as a bullhorn.
But again, it is to use my experiences as a “teachable moment” to show how what you don’t see drives feelings of racism and discrimination that largely go unchecked.
And my question to readers after they finish reading will be: Am I seeing ghosts or have I been discriminated against?
Racism? You will be the judge.