These are my “notes” composed over the pandemic summer in reaction to the current national racial justice movement. I share them with the hope that they may help readers who are experiencing their own awakening to racism. They include links to readings and videos for those who would like to “go deeper”.
I am grateful to my friends Judy Neely and Keva White for their help with this. Judy led a study group on Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility, and added helpful suggestions. Keva, a Fenway network colleague who teaches a wide range of courses on diversity, equity and inclusion and cultural competence, has allowed me to borrow some of his insights and reference materials. Here his profile for those of you interested in his expertise on the subject:
https://www.fenwaymanagementadvisors.org/keva.
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Swimming Naked
“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” - (Warren Buffett)
The murder of George Floyd uncovered for white people the naked truth about racism in policing we all knew existed, but never did anything about it. There is so much more to learn beyond the inconvenient truth that some policing practices can be harmfully racist and need reform. We must resist allowing criticism of the “defunding” narrative to divert attention from the naked core cause: racism, and look to well-reasoned approaches to address the problem. For example, see this article written by Black police officer David Hughes, “Re-fund The Police, Smarter”, NY Times, p. A-25 (7/17/2020),
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“Low-Hanging Fruit”
My wife, Mimi, used to sit close to the ocean to keep a close eye on our young sons swimming in the surf. Her sister, Mary Ellen, would sit and worry with her. When a big wave approached, Mary Ellen’s voice would raise an octave as she shouted, “Watch out, here comes ‘Mr. Big’!”
We are now swimming in the calm surf by taking down racist statues and dropping the names of racist figures and by well-meaning organizations issuing anti-racist statements. While important, these actions are the “low hanging fruit”. The “Mr. Big” issues – the really tough ones – keep pounding the beach. The list of structural racism practices we need to upend is so, so very long. Here’s just a partial one:
What about rewriting and reteaching history to tell – honestly - our country’s story of racism?
The contrast between the physical plants of the Philadelphia schools I have visited to those I am used to seeing in the suburbs is stark. How will we reform the funding of public schools? Vermont did it over 20 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_60_(Vermont_law)
I watched the documentary “13TH” a while ago, and wondered how we will ever reform our prison system. We learn from the film right off that with only 5% of the world’s population, American has 25% of the world’s prisoners and they are disproportionately Black.
Systematic real estate development, local government and federal housing policies and practices have excluded affordable housing in the suburbs for low income Black families; and although “most African-Americans are not poor[,] working- and middle-class Black families whose incomes are too high to qualify for existing subsidies are also excluded from neighborhoods … because of their race.” Richard Rothstein, “The Black Lives Next Door”, The New York Times, Sunday Review, p. 6, 8/14/20,
While COVID-19 has starkly revealed the disparities in the way people of color are treated under our health care system, that issue has been studied and well-known for years in health care circles. Yet, while I was in the health care provider industry my whole career, I never knew until I saw a recent NBC News report that there is a need for more Black women psychiatrists to help Black women patients.
The 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision which upheld Obamacare also struck down the provision that require states to expand Medicaid. Many states declined to expand Medicaid. To make matters worse, the federal government then allowed states to take Medicaid coverage away from people not engaging in work or work-related activities for a specified number of hours per month. The combined effect has been to systematically undermine access to important health care for many African Americans without appreciably promoting employment, a situation made even worse by the pandemic. For more detail on this subject, see this August 12, 2018 report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Only recently have we heard public discussion about whether and how to structure and finance meaningful reparations for the past sin of slavery. Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations, The Atlantic, June 2014.
This list only scratches the surface. Systematic racism, with its many manifestations, seems overwhelming. I am not sanguine about our nation’s ability to appreciably “move the needle” in my remaining lifetime despite recent polls which show a dramatic shift in popular support for Black Lives Matter, https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/.
One columnist put it this way:
“Against this backdrop of half-measures and outright hostility [in reaction to changing names, taking down statues, diversifying board rooms, shifting law enforcement resources], it’s easy to envision that the momentum for progress on racial justice will soon be squandered. But it needn’t be. To redress systematic racism, America needs to create conditions for systematic reform. …Transformational change would entail a new opportunity agenda that confronts the root causes of structural racism.”
Susan Rice, “Take the Next Step Towards Racial Equality,” The New York Times, p. A23 (July 22, 2020),
Another commentator put it this way:
“But can we change? History and culture are against it. Another one of our great national addictions is convenience fueled by the expectations that things essential for daily living be made cheap, easy and painless. Racism is a form of convenience, in the sense that it’s designed to make life easier for its beneficiaries. So is white privilege – the phenomenon of not having to think about the costs of oppression, or about Black people at all.”
Erin Aubry Kaplan, “Everyone’s an Antiracist. Now What?”, The New York Times, p. A19 (July 6, 2020),
Keva White adds that, looking back, the civil rights movement of the 1960’s was but a “moment” in time. “Black Lives Matter won’t ‘matter’ five or ten years from now if there isn’t transformative, sustainable action – legislation – to curtail the detrimental effects of government-enabled racist practices.”
An optimist by nature, I’m fighting to stay hopeful.
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The Fizzle Effect
Like many Americans, I have been participating in formal and informal discussion groups, some with Blacks and whites and others with just whites. Some have been awkward and difficult, but I’m glad this is happening. I can’t recall anything quite like it. I believe we need to be open to listening and commit to active listening. As one fellow Black board member said, “Listening is not enough. We need to learn from listening. And, we need to process what we learn into action”. Listening, learning and action have the power to transform our own lives, our interactions with others and what we tangibly do to advance anti-racism. My colleague added that it will be “tough … and heavy”. True, I thought. Then I thought: If we multiply our individual actions across millions of white people across the country, maybe dramatic, transformative change can occur.
However, I am worried about what Keva calls the “fizzle effect”; i.e., that group and national conversations about racism will fade as other public events take over our collective conscience (just like the killing of little children and teachers at Sandy Hook hasn’t resulted in meaningful gun legislation).
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“Hope is Not a Strategy”
The Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia sponsored a program on White Supremacy with Marcus Walton who heads up Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, https://www.geofunders.org/related/marcus-walton. He made some good leadership points:
The term “White Supremacy” triggers anxiety for white people, but we have to overcome that anxiety. Philanthropic organizations need to be brave to change.
“Whiteness” is a better term to use than “Whites” or “White People” when discussing white attitudes towards racism. Understanding racism isn’t about identifying as “White”. It’s about “whiteness”; i.e., the perpetuation of the political/cultural norms which have given whites privilege and denied resources to Blacks and other minorities.
Real change won’t result from changing hearts and minds, important as that may be; it will come from dismantling imbedded racist practices.
The focus for changing racist practices should be on becoming “race-centered” in perspective; i.e., understanding that many factors (e.g., gender, wealth, age, geography, culture) influence racial practices.
There is no cookie cutter approach. “We haven’t figured this out yet.” Therefore, as we try to do so, we will make mistakes. Black and white people should work together to figure out where the gaps are and then find ways to reconcile.
White volunteer board members of non-profits have barriers to overcome. They have positional power, operate from a position of privilege, are busy with other priorities and have unspoken biases and fears just like everyone else. A tactical “screwdriver” approach using “intentional analysis” is better than a “hammer” approach in getting them to become self-aware and understand what they don’t yet know about racism.
“Adaptive Leadership” is a key. Foundation leaders need to shift their mindset from looking at grant making as transactional to “trust-based” grant-making with the non-profits they fund; i.e., foundations should “set the table” by asking questions to the organizations “that do the work” and being open to learning from them how to effect change. We have to “imagine” what change would look like and work collaboratively to achieve it.
In making the above points, Mr. Marcus reminded listeners that “hope is not a strategy”. As noted above, action is needed to change racist practices. As he was making this point, I kept thinking that “hope” is important in another sense. Leaders need to believe that changing anti-racist practices can be accomplished, that the work they do will matter. Here are some reasons for hope:
“This Does Feel Different”: Many people I respect of both races have been saying this. More white people than I would have expected appear to be honestly self-reflecting and learning about the impact of racism on their own attitudes. The kind of open dialogue I have heard is tangibly different from anything I’ve experienced going way back to the Civil Rights movement.
Sharing Experiences: Keva believes that uncovering of “hidden histories” is a good way to educate whites about racism. “If you didn’t live in New York City in the ‘70’s, John, you would not be aware of the Rosedale Housing issue. I grew up 10 minutes away from Rosedale. It’s impact still resonates with me today.” Take a look at this video to see what he means:
Rosedale Queens Housing Discrimination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrVdaxDgr2g&t=9s
Black Prominence: When Muhammad Ali told the American public that he changed his name from Cassius Clay because it was a slave name, it stuck with me. .
So did the Black Power salute Tommy Smith and John Carlos gave a at the 1968 Olympic Games.
In both cases, white mainstream American reaction was very negative. Today our attitudes are still influenced by what we see and hear in the media, but the media is now multi-media and immediate. Colin Kaepernick’s “taking one knee” during the National Anthem before an NFL game in San Diego quickly became viral and controversial.
Unlike the Ali and Smith/Carlos era protests, Kaepernick is just one of many prominent voices. There has been a steadily increasing role played by prominent Blacks in positively influencing public opinion and culture through elected officials, professional news reporting, business leadership, board roles, movies and TV programs. Entertainment and sports figures like Malcolm Jenkins are using their platforms to speak out persuasively about racial justice like never before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zReNJQcPp-E. Present and former Major League Baseball players have formed The Players Alliance to publicly support of Black Lives Matter.
White people are listening and learning.
Soul of America: I read Jon Meachem’s book, Soul of America, before the current national focus on racism, but still lean back on its hopeful theme. Meachem traces horrible chapters in our nation’s history, including racism in particular, and demonstrates how we somehow (in our “soul”) have had the capacity to find our “better angels” to turn our nation back in the right direction. History shows us that there will be steps forward, then steps backward, then mores forward, but with an upward trajectory.
Other Movements: There are other major social justice movements and moments (e.g., election of a Black President, Me Too Movement, legalization of gay marriage, elected women officials) that give hope. From them we have seen that public opinion can turn quickly, allowing change.
Demographics: In less than 25 years, it is projected that white people will no longer be the majority of our country’s population, and there are even signs that diversification is accelerating faster than expected (see HERE). It stands to reason that our politics and culture will change with it.
Economics: I think America will eventually figure out that the equitable provision of resources to Blacks so they can succeed in our society will have economic benefits for all. Why in the world would we not want to harness the intellectual and human resource capital of Blacks for the economic gain of all?
Youth: I asked my granddaughter Lily, a sophomore in college, why there were so many young whites joining with Black youth in the demonstrations across the country. She responded,
“We grew up in the wake of 911 and came of age during Obama’s presidency which was full of hope. We’ve been dealing since then with the opposite. We will be voting. We hold people accountable through social media and person-to-person. We will make a difference.”
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“It’s Economics, Stupid”
Economic inequality is another “Mr. Big”. Many white people have been conditioned to view Blacks as “poor” in a negative way without a fundamental understanding of the underlying racist causes of urban poverty. (See Keva White’s course on “Understanding Urban Poverty”,). Now, it seems mainstream media stories are … finally … pointing out the glaring Black/White wealth gap in this country and the structural reasons behind it. Some examples follow:
Ron Allen, NBC News, 7/2/20, addressing why so few Black families have wealth (lack of intergenerational wealth, student loans, lower wages):
“Having capital gives you breathing room. If you don’t have it, you’re not breathing, you’re suffocating.”
David Leonhardt, “The ‘Invisible Men’ Problem, NY Times, 6/25/20, The Black-white income gap is as big as it was in 1950.
“That’s remarkable. Despite decades of political change — the end of enforced segregation across the South, the legalization of interracial marriage, the passage of multiple civil rights laws and more — the wages of black men trail those of white men by as much as when Harry Truman was president. That gap indicates that there have also been powerful forces pushing against racial equality.”
David Leonhardt & Yaryna Serkez, “American Exceptionalism”, NY Times, 7/5/20, p. 11:
“It is no surprise that the median Black family had roughly one-tenth of the wealth of a white family as of 2016. The gap not only limits education and career options, it’s also a source of gnawing anxiety about how the bills will get paid in the event of a job loss or costly illness – setbacks facing millions of families, again disproportionately Black during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nearly half of Black households have limited access to retail banking services, or none at all. And Black customers who have bank accounts pay more - $190 more for a checking account – compared with white customers, according to one study. That’s because banks in communities of color generally require higher opening balances and minimums to avoid fees, and they charge more for A.T.M. transactions and overdrafts. Seemingly small differences in bank fees pay off handsomely for the industry.”
“The 1 Percent” documentary by Jamie Johnson boldly demonstrates the nature and impact of the wealth gap in our country:
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Patience
During a zoom call with a group of whites a friend said she had participated earlier in the week in a zoom call sponsored by the national Episcopal and Lutheran churches. A church leader on the call had counseled patience because dramatic change is hard and takes time given the obstacles.
I reminded my friend of Dr. Martin Luther King’s remarks about patience in his letter from the Birmingham jail (emphasis added):
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was ‘well timed,’ according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never.’ It has been a tranquilizing Thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’ We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.
“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait.
“But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;
“When you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity;
“When you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;
“When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see the tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking in agonizing pathos: ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’
“When you take a cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘white’ men and ‘colored’ when your first name becomes ‘nigger’ and your middle name becomes ‘boy’ (however old you are) and your last name becomes ‘John,’ and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title of ‘Mrs.’, when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments;
“When you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”
Many of the types of oppression Dr. King described still exist today, over a half century later. Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Great Society programs enacted during the Lyndon Johnson years, the political narrative has focused on the middle class and waging war. As I see it, suggesting that Black people should be patient for change is just another way white people rationalize their own inaction. After 400 years, white society can’t realistically expect the Black community to be patient.
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Responsibility
What can leaders do to meaningfully address racism? As noted above, it’s important to translate active listening into learning and then learning into action. Part of the learning process is to admit, with humility, that your organization (and you!) have not addressed racism in a meaningful way and that your own inbred attitudes towards Blacks, shaped by years of living in a racist society, may have influenced your past actions and, most likely, your lack of attention to the impact of racism. Then, assume the responsibility of taking meaningful steps to eliminate racism. This means owning the issue as a top priority, executing actions effectively in a sustainable way and being accountable, just like any other personal or business imperative.
I am fortunate to serve on the board of a non-profit foundation which over the better part of 2019 reexamined its vision and mission through a social equity lens. We committed as an organization “and as individual board members” to “recognize that the roots of inequity run deep in our society, and we strive to understand our own roles in sustaining structural inequity.” https://healthspark.org/history For board members who are white, myself included, this represented a leap from being theoretically opposed to racism to recognizing our own role in perpetuating structural racism through our inbred bias, actions and inactions and doing something about it in the way we make grants, manage our investments, recruit new board members, hire consultants, honestly talk to each other and, I hope, much more.
There is, of course, no cookie cutter approach because organizations are different, and actions taken need to be consistent with the organization’s mission although it may very well mean a reexamination of that mission. It may take a wholesale equity audit of all practices and creative thinking. It’s not just about recruiting a more diverse board or having non-discriminatory hiring practices. I suspect it will take innovative solutions and courage to take risks. If it’s easy, ask seriously whether you are doing the right thing or doing enough.
Here are a few ideas I’ve written about in previous “Rounding Third” blogs. The first is from my April 23, 2018 blog, "Rounding Third" #12: "My Black Playmate Next Door":
“…the calls of well-intentioned leaders for board, executive and employee diversity are not enough. Neither is hiring a minority person to a top HR position. Recruiting people of color (and other minorities) to board and executive positions isn’t either. White leaders must first learn about and appreciate the underlying causes and effects of racism, poverty and white privilege in this country, and they must honestly identify and confront their own subliminal biases. Without these foundational understandings, there will be no personal leadership commitment to, or basis for, transforming organizations to eliminate discrimination and capture the full value that comes from a diverse board, executive team and creative workforce.”
The second is from my January 23, 2019 blog, "Rounding Third Leadership Series #17: We Can't Give Them Both Offers":
“Inspired leaders lead by personal example. A now retired executive friend ran a $1 billion nonprofit health system. In discussions with minority vendors in the surrounding community, he discovered these vendors couldn’t meet the system’s purchasing conditions because the financing they needed to invest in new resources to meet the system’s demand was not available to them. Unwilling to let that be a roadblock, he persuaded the system’s principal bank to lend money to the minority vendors with the system’s backing. The vendors invested the funds as planned, they got the contracts and they performed well.”
It may mean training your board members on diversity, equity and inclusion, boycotting offending business partners, making socially responsible investments, stop hiring white friends and paying them better than a more qualified person of color or rethinking how you market. It will take authentic leadership commitment.
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“A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”
For many Americans and me, the image of the Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck as he gasped for the breath of life represents Black oppression.
Another compelling one is the “Equity Image” which demonstrates that providing equal opportunity doesn’t work unless the disenfranchised also have access to equal resources:
And, the fence the kids are behind represents the obstacles created by institutional racism. We need to tear them down so the next generation of Black Americans are “in” the game.
Yet another image describes the “interlocking forces of oppression” that impact Blacks because of systematic racism. It is the “birdcage” in White Fragility, p. 23, which is attributed to Margaret Frye, The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1983):
“…If you stand close to a birdcage and press your face against the wires, your perception of the bars will disappear and you will have an almost unobstructed view of the bird. If you turn your head to examine one wire of the cage closely, you will not be able to see the other wires. If your understanding of the cage is based on this myopic view, you may not understand why the bird doesn’t just go around the single wire and fly away. You might even assume the bird liked or chose its place in the cage.
“But if you stepped back and took a wider view, you would begin to see that the wires come together in an interlocking pattern – a pattern that works to hold the bird firmly in place. It now becomes clear that a network of systematically related barriers surrounds the bird. Taken individually, none of these barriers would be that difficult for the bird to get around, but because they interlock with each other, they thoroughly restrict the bird.”
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The Power of Stories
A few people in all-white discussion groups have made the point that we need to learn on our own about racism. It’s our responsibility and we should not burden Black people to do it for us. I pushed back, believing from my own experience that honest discussions about racism with Black people who have experienced racism in their own lives has helped me understand and deal with my own innate prejudices. Here are just a few stories I have personally witnessed recently, each one rooted in institutional racism:
The masters-trained social worker whose high school guidance counselor told him he was not good enough to go to college.
The meticulous steps taken by a father with his family in preparation for being pulled over late at night by state troopers on the NJ Turnpike on the way back to South Jersey from a visit with his elderly mother in New York City.
What it feels like to be followed around a store when shopping.
The worry in the voice of a social service professional who works with abused children when relating how many of those children say they hate white people.
The high school honor student (now a sophomore in college) who did all her high school homework and term papers on a smart phone because her public school didn’t provide laptops and her parents couldn’t afford one.
A group of college students raised in the foster care system talking candidly about not being able to go “home” for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
A food insecure mother who gets to her college class just in time from her job only to find she has to park illegally because there are no on-campus parking places left.
It’s one thing to read about these types of stories or hear them on TV, and quite another to hear them from people you know and respect. I try to empathize about how these types of experiences would make me feel, but I can’t feel the emotional hurt they must generate for the storytellers. While some of the listed experiences may happen to white people too, it doesn’t happen to them because of the color of their skin or as a result of the long-term impact of institutional racism.
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“Steve”
I participated in a book group reading “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, PhD, the “hot” book this summer for white people trying to learn about their own racist feelings triggered by the George Floyd murder. One group member asked if we could talk about our personal relationships with Black people. Some group members admitted not knowing many (even any) Black people. Many white people (myself and friends included) live, socialize and worship in mostly white communities.
I didn’t recall encountering Black people before “My Black Playmate” referred to in "Rounding Third" #12: "My Black Playmate Next Door". I was 10 years old then. My mind ran through a list of men and women of color I have met, worked with and, to a lesser extent, socialized with since then. Then, a Black person I never knew emerged.
My father, Edward Arlington Kepner, died when I was 11 years old. I have very few memories of him, but three that remain helped shape my views on racism as a young boy. One I recounted in Blog #12, referenced above.
The second was a debate my dad and I had on this question: Who was the greater president, Washington or Lincoln? He gave me the choice of presidents. Wanting an advantage, I picked Lincoln because I knew my dad favored Lincoln “because he freed the slaves”.
When my father was a youngster in Royersford, PA 100 years ago, there was a Black man named Steve who drove a wagon through town. Steve used to let young “Arlington” ride next to him. My dad was ridiculed about this by the town’s people who called him “Little Steve”. I tell the story with thanks for Big Steve showing kindness to a little boy and with pride at my father accepting the gift of his name. You see, my father was called “Steve” for the rest of his life. And, no doubt, when people asked him how he got the name, it gave him the opportunity to tell them why.
Other References
Keva White, Training Course Power Point: “The Race to Social Justice”, available here: https://bit.ly/3kFPsVn).
Peggy McIntosh, Essay: “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, available here: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor (Sourcebooks, 2010)
Debby Irving, Waking up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race (Elephant Room Press, 2014)
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Bold Type Books, 2016)