Black Pain + Suffering = Symptoms of Systemic Problems for Everyone

The strange fruit producing the pain and suffering of Black people in America has oppression at the roots giving life to the tree of racism. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Aubrey, COVID-19 deaths and suffering, and all the attempts to exploit, ignore, silence, and make us invisible...these are all different types of strange fruit from the same tree. The burden is heavy and every new incident is another weight that Black people are expected to bear civilly and quietly to keep everyone else comfortable.

Demanding a Return on Investment

The deadly and painful burden of racism started for Black people well before COVID-19 and will continue afterwards if we do not stop with this business as usual behavior. We are not asking for charity or sympathy. We are asking for a return on our investment in cities, states, and the United States of America. We are taxpayers just like everyone else, contrary to assumptions and commentaries about us. We have cared, created, made history, and fought for this country. 

Between us and our Latinx brothers and sisters, we represent the majority of the people who are the engines of businesses, government, and nonprofit organizations including healthcare, retail, hospitality, and other services. In the midst of COVID-19, our work has been deemed “essential,” but our lives have not. Not only are our lives essential: Our role in decision making is essential. Our vote is essential. Our role in the future of this country is essential. These statements are true in this COVID-19 moment, in an era of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmed Aubrey, and the countless injustices we experience everyday by our fellow Americans.

Black people are often not acknowledged, seen, or heard in organizations, with elected officials, and other spaces of traditional power...and not because we do not try, but because people work to ignore and silence us. Our advocacy makes other people uncomfortable, so we become the problem instead of the real problems we are surfacing. In fact, the issues surfaced are harmful to others beyond People of Color because they represent the broken places of an organization, a system, and our country. The oppressive dynamics of minimizing, silencing, and gas lighting are playing out in communities across the country fighting for their return on investment.

Law Enforcement Changes

The largely peaceful protests around the country are manifestations of the overpressurized silence and disregarded pain, anger, and frustration of Black People built up over generations, in addition to the shock and horror of many other People of Color and White Americans.

The law enforcement and criminal justice systems are made up of parts and each one has long played a passive role in the mistreatment and murder of Black people. Police officers are incentivized to look the other way when fellow officers fail their oaths. Police officers who do speak up are ostracized or worse put in life threatening situations. Chiefs rarely fire police officers after misconduct. And when officers are fired, unions advocate for officers that should not be on duty. If a district attorney actually decides to prosecute the case, the court system’s structure allows lawyers to horse trade jury members leading to juries that rarely prosecute officers. The defense of being afraid for your life is good enough, even though everyone in America has been taught to fear Black people, especially Black men. 

As I have watched these protests, I have seen many people being attacked by the police (mostly in places where the police have taken a combative and militant approach to protesters). White people are among those being attacked. The problems are not with Black people, the problems include:

• the over-militarization of the police;
• the delusion that police officers are not regular people with beliefs and attitudes that influence their behavior in uniform; 
• the lack of training and development of police officers on managing themselves and being disruptive to oppression
• the lack of building true partnership with, protection of, and service to communities
• the rare occurrence of firing police officers for misconduct; 
• the lack of centralized, statewide certification management for police officers that comes with the consequence of being decertified for misconduct so they cannot be rehired; and
• the court system’s many problems (from judge’s decision fatigue and default biases being ignored to sentencing inequities).

I have also seen law enforcement take actions that make it clear they stand with protesters. In Newark, Atlanta, and other places, law enforcement took a position. We need more of that and a sustained commitment to advocate and implement change. I do not profess to have all the answers or that any of this is easy. However, we need to take action to transform this flawed system that is harmful to all of us. 

COVID-19

COVID-19 is disproportionately infecting and killing Black people across the country. I live in Boston and there has been a lot of reporting that Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh have very high approval ratings for their responses to COVID-19. I am not surprised to see that our White brothers and sisters think that Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh have been doing a good job. I am not surprised because if it is not your struggle, it is often invisible to you...unless someone helps you to see it. That is one of the ways racism works; making the problems that affect all of us, the problems of one group and therefore, not our problem. Although we have a shared set of human conditions as people that bonds us, we also have different experiences that seem like alternate realities. We have to accept that complexity.

For the Black community, COVID-19 has been more of the same strange fruit of death, suffering, and disregard. According to the Census, Black people represent approximately 25% of the population in Boston. However, Black people represent 38% of cases and 35% of deaths with race data available. The numbers of cases and deaths are likely higher considering the many stories of Black people being denied testing and the sentiment from Black funeral homes that they are overwhelmed. Furthermore, there are the much higher number of overall deaths or excess deaths compared to previous years that are above and beyond the reported numbers of COVID-19 deaths. The state data paints a stark picture as well, but it is missing almost half of the race data.

Community-driven organizations, like the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition, created strategies, met with the Mayor and reached out to the Governor, protested, and filled the resource gaps left in the Black community. And the Mayor and Governor continue to make more decisions that will be disproportionately harmful to Black people. More decisions about us without us. This includes the lack of transparency and partnership on the city and states’ reopening groups advising their actions. 

What we are asking for specifically is partnership: 

• There is still not enough testing in our community and no coordinated strategy for how testing is being done and will be sustained so we can safely reopen. We have identified key locations in Boston where testing needs to happen and can help coordinate the process, communication, and community participation.
• There is no strategy for ensuring the federal resources being poured into Massachusetts and then Boston are getting in the hands of the businesses and people who are most impacted. Since Black people represent 25% of the population, they should receive that percentage of the federal funding coming to Boston through the state to support Black small businesses and Black communities. The process and disbursement should include us and be transparent to the public.
• There is still no strategy for addressing the pre-COVID and now COVID-worsened public education system. We have educational response and recovery priorities that Boston Public Schools should be working with us on integrating into the larger strategy and implementation. Community sessions are good. However, after those sessions, everything is taken behind closed doors and the ultimate decisions usually do not include what has been advocated for.
• There is still no strategy for the overall emergency management for this pandemic. We have developed emergency management approaches and operational priorities based on best practices that should be a part of the city’s strategy and coordinated with us. We have people in the coalition who are experts respected in the field internationally.

There are always unsatisfactory responses for our demands: “We spoke to [fill in the blank person or organization];” “We do have these things in place;” “We are working on them;” or “Look at all the things we have done.” My response: One person or group does not represent all Black people: People seem to recognize this during campaign season. Show us what the strategy is, if it is not shared with the public, then it is like it does not exist. If they do exist, partner with us on making sure they are effective. All of the “things” that have already happened do not equate to a strategy. Strategies and plans are intentional, forward looking, and have measures for success. 

For the record, the COVID-19 crisis is not over despite the reopening advisory groups and phased plans. 

Final Thoughts

The problems that I have identified are not “Black” problems, but problems with our systems, structures, policies, programs, and decision makers that impact all of us. So if you did not know that these problems led to Black people bearing the disproportionate burden and if you did not see how these issues impact you...hopefully, now you do and will support us as we have supported this country (thank you to those who already do).

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