Ending the Silence
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing – John Stuart Mill
Our nation went silent on racism on November 8th, 2008…
…or, at least, most people did.
With the election of a black president, many in our nation breathed a large sigh of relief. One of the last remnants of the Whites Only Club had fallen. Maybe now our nation could begin to heal and the Great Experiment that is our Republic might reach a new plateau.
Instead, it led to an era of awkward silences and simmering resentment.
The Obama era was one where (counter-intuitively) it became damnably difficult to speak of injustice and race. If voices were raised about institutional injustice, one would hear about the advances being made in our culture. If pressed, the counterargument would invariably cite the Obama presidency as the ultimate indicator of progress. Many scholars and pundits started asking if we had finally achieved that mythical “post-racial America” postulated in the ’70s.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, we must all admit that things aren’t the same as they were in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. They are, in some cases, far better from a racial standpoint…
…but they are also far from okay. In this supposedly post-racial America:
Black wealth on average is less than 1/6th that of whites
On the Boards of Directors of Fortune 500 companies, the total minority representation is 16.1%. Mind you, that’s 16.1% of all non-whites, not just Blacks.
Black unemployment remains a serious issue. Even as this month’s jobs report reflected a slight rebound, black unemployment continued to grow.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been discussing these issues as a society, especially not with our children. In an attempt to appear egalitarian or socially enlightened, many adults adopted a colorblind approach to the subject of race. Saying that they “didn’t see race” allowed folks to quickly classify themselves as non-racists, without realizing the implicit bias of their statements. Blacks stopped having conversations as well. While we knew the data existed, we kept running into the “what about Obama” argument whenever we raised concerns.
Mind you, now, not everyone was silent. In the wake of rampart liberalism, movements to “take back America” and “return to American values” were spurred on via racial animosity. We saw a subset of the white population express their dissatisfaction using language and techniques that would land most Blacks in jail. We saw a plethora of violence against many minority and marginalized groups. While most went silent, others stoked the flames of racist hatred.
I, too, struggled during these times to find my voice. I could not explain that one event or exception does not prove the rule. My peers did not understand the hypocrisy behind the statement, “Well, you’re here, so you clearly weren’t discriminated against,” when I was the only minority executive (or at least the only Black male executive) in the company. How do I explain to them the white noise (no pun intended) that fills the background of my life? The casual insults, the off-the-cuff affronts, the not-so-subtle digs that I wasn’t welcome where I was? That I (like my father before me) never set out to be the trailblazer? That every word I utter, every action I take, I do under the fear of being summarily dismissed if I offend someone, if I come across as too “uppity.”
On November 11, 2016 I went completely silent. I tried to explain why to some, but they immediately assumed some sort of liberal bias on my part. That was not the case. See, I could (and do) understand that people have differences of opinion and/or passion issues that are important to them. But — and this is critical — by electing a president with a long history of racial bias and misogyny in order to advance an issue – any issue – our nation made an affirmative and unequivocal statement that those issues were, in fact, more important than treating me with fairness, equality, or civility.
As a former soldier and a lifelong sheepdog, this offended me.
It still does.
I can no longer stay silent. No one with integrity, honor, and a conscience should stay silent. We’re riding a wave of protests that have the capacity to lead to meaningful, sustainable change. If we have any hope of achieving equality, we each need to make our voices heard.
The time for silence is over.
Let’s get to work…
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