On A Mission

As I was driving to work last week listening to Spotify, the playlist turned to Tracy Chapman, an artist I’m familiar with from my college days. I was transported to Sheffield, an industrial city in northern England, where I drove my little red Fiesta that my dad helped me acquire for three thousand pounds.

Don’t you know, talkin’ about a revolution

It sounds like a whisper

While Chapman is an incredible American success story, when you look at the research around income and education across different demographic groups, there’s more out there on the disparities than progress.

According to the Pew Research Center, median black household income was 61% of white income in 2018, up slightly from 56% in 1970. In absolute dollars white households have seen a larger increase over this time period (up $30,500) as compared to black households (up $20,200) between 1970 and 2018, so we have a long way to go before the wage gap closes:

While reading an article Why Atlanta Is the Blackest Show Ever, it describes the trapdoors that black people can fall into in the course of a regular day. Like walking down the street, having coffee in Starbucks or minding your own business in Central Park and “next thing a white woman calls 911 and says she feels threatened”.

In my workplace at Community Partners in Action (CPA), we have been talking about the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. It’s one of many books on the topic including How to be an antiracist, by Ibram X Kendi. Layla’s words are direct. I appreciate her straight talk as she educates white people about the black stereotypes that white people hold and the advantages that come from living inside a white skin.

Most of the participants at CPA are black men so I paid close attention to the chapter about the white supremacist view of Blacks. When you look at the criminal justice system and the disproportionate number of black men who are incarcerated, you know why rage exists.

In her Instagram challenge, #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, her soothing voice takes the edge off her directness. This post in particular caught my eye:

My awareness is raised (thank you Layla), and while to err is to be human, I’ll try to mess up less. So let the tables continue to turn, and pick up speed until “the whisper” is a loud voice inside everyone to move beyond talking.