DRAGONS IN NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!

The eradication of racism and the creation of communities where racial harmony and equitable access to resources has been a huge part of my life’s work.

In fact, from the beginning I was thrust into this conversation. Being named after the Georgian civil rights leader Julian Bond, you can almost say I was born into it.

With that being said, for the first part of my life racism mostly fell into 3 categories:

1. History: Racism was at its worst in the past.

2. Geography: Racism was at its worst in the South

3. Episode: Racism was at its worst in bites & slices.

It wasn’t until I moved to the Midwest from California in my twenties did I experience racism that wasn’t history, geography, or episodic. It was right now, right here, and right in my face.

I remember going to an elementary school kickoff barbeque with my family and NO ONE SPOKE TO US. We ate in silence while everyone else talked to each other as if we weren’t there. I remember interactions with people in my faith community that openly insulted and made jokes about me because I was Black. I remember someone yelling a word that rhymes with BIGGER that starts with N while I stood in my driveway. I remember someone that tried to hit me with their car while I went on a morning run.

But the craziest thing about the experiences wasn’t just the experiences themselves. It was the conversations about the experiences that were the wackiest.

There was hand wringing and empathetic “sorrys” of course, but the overarching belief was that these were exceptional events and not the rule. That the racism at its ugliest was found in extreme corners where people wore Klan hoods, had swastikas tattooed on their foreheads, and had secret society meetings. It is often said after a Black college student has a racial slur carved into their chest, or a group of latino children are accosted with “build a wall” chants, or a high ranking government official associates a global pandemic with the Chinese, or a host of other racist attacks, that this “isn’t us”.

But the question is, if this isn’t us THEN WHO IS IT?

I think it is more “us” than we realize or courageous enough to admit.

We must realize that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in America only 60 YEARS AGO.

Think about how many people you know that are 60 years old or older. That means that for nearly 75 percent of America’s lifespan we have been legally discriminatory and racist (1776–1964). You don’t unlearn centuries of racism and hatred in a generation and a half. To break the cycle of racial oppression and systemic discrimination is to face it, fight it, and then fix it. But we can’t fix or fight what we are unwilling to face.

I’ve heard it said “I would have marched with Dr. King, I would have stood with Rosa Parks, I would have advocated with Malcolm, I would have made a difference.”

Truth is, we don’t truly know what we would do. The only glimpse of what we might do is what we doing or not doing right now.

Racism is much easier to spot in history for some of us than it is to see in the present.

And like those in history that looked the other way, pretended not to know, spiritualized or rationalized it through some other means, racism is largely invisible. It can’t be smelled, tasted, or touched. It exists as a theoretical realm that we acknowledge symbolically a few times a year or in certain instances, but remains largely unbothered.

When the Dragon of racism is finally poked by brave Dragon slayers, it is the Dragon slayers and not the fire breathers that are vilified, ostracized, and cast out.

If the Dragon is denied its being “dragon-y”, its demise defended, it’s much easier to pretend that the Dragon doesn’t really exist at all.

Or if it did exist, it was vanquished long ago.

That is exactly how the Dragon likes it. Because the Dragon knows that unspoken secrets that everyone knows about but no one will talk about, have the most power.

So let’s do what the Dragon hates:

Talk about it.

What happened in New York at Madison Square Garden Sunday night at a political event where Puerto Ricans, African Americans, East Asians, Jews, Latinos, among others were mocked, insulted, and dehumanized was racism in its rawest form. It was mean, crude, hateful and reprehensibly evil. It was terrible, abhorrent, and the absolute worst.

OR WAS IT?

Maybe it was just political bluster, passion, a group of people simply sharing their perspective and “telling it like it is.”

Maybe it was just a crowd of folks aligning themselves with like minded souls that intend to help make America better. Maybe when a speaker said “America is for Americans and for Americans only” they meant the mosaic of people of every background, hue, color, and culture.

Maybe all the “poisoning the blood of America” talk is just a big joke.

They didn’t mean it.

Didn’t mean it at all.

It was all just fun and games.

Of course, it must be noted, that is exactly what a Dragon would want you to think.

#Racism

#Civility

#Leadership

#Peace

#BeautifulTogether

#hope

#love

#healing