ERACE - 5 STEPS TO DO MY PART TO ERADICATE RACISM

I am a black man. In my native Trinidad & Tobago, they call me red man. My Dad, who’s the same complexion as I am, was called white boy growing up in T&T. If you don’t know Trinidad & Tobago, look us up. And go visit. After Covid. But I digress. When it comes to skin color, this world is a beautiful place, but we can also be so full of shit. We perceive each other through a skin color lens every single day, looking at each other with checkered filters and with all the assumptions (often flawed) that come with it. It’s about time now we check those assumptions, and polish the filters.

Since George Floyd died, I’ve been feeling an intense mix of sadness and anger. Not only by the manner of his death, or what seems to be now the never ending and senseless loss of black lives to law enforcement, but also an overall feeling of dread and helplessness. But through the pain, I knew I needed to make my own personal changes to ensure that his passing, and all who went before in similar fashion, can’t be in vain. Just wasn’t sure what those changes should be. But the good news is that some answers are beginning to trickle in and there is hope after all. A lot of it.

Last week my little guy taught me what is an acrostic poem. Yeah, he’s the one homeschooling me. I had never heard of the word acrostic before. If you are like me and have no clue either, an acrostic poem is a poem where the first letter of every line spells out a word. So I decided to come up with my own acrostic word and write a few lines to help me move through this heaviness a bit better.

ERACE

This word was inspired by a shirt I saw the other day. It’s pretty self-explanatory in meaning but my acrostic “poem” is really 5 simple steps that help fill me up and do my part to eradicate racism. Maybe they might be helpful for you too.

E ngage with family, friends, neighbors, employees and everyone within my sphere of influence. We have to stop hiding from racism, and pretending that it is someone else’s problem. Being an immigrant to the US, I always felt that the problem of race facing this country wasn’t mine. But that has changed now. I have a black 7 year old son with an American passport. And he is an active part of our family conversations around race. Wherever you are in this world, in the US or not, start to engage more. And with people who don’t look like you. Silence equals complicity.

R oot out my inner racist or what I call Inner Racist Syndrome. We all suffer from the IRS. Over the years I’m not at all proud of some of the things I might have said or thought about other groups. I would like to believe I’ve evolved a lot since that time but still have work to do. And I’ve found that the inner racist can take several forms. Not only the obvious one of considering yourself to be superior to someone else or other group, but the opposite is also true. Self-shaming (why did I get my Dad’s broad African nose or the spiky Chinese hair from My Mom), to loathing of your own group (not wanting my own group to progress, unless I was progressing too), to considering my group to be inferior to another: they’re all subtle manifestations of the inner racist. So if you find your skin is too black or too white or too yellow, start to love it still. If you find your hair too unmalleable and unmanageable, especially in this Covid season, love it still. If you find your backside too flat, love it still. Then start to show love to your group, then to other group, regardless of difference. Heal the inner racist, and we’ll be on our way to where we need to be. And oh, I love my nose now by the way, and grateful that at age 48, I still have hair. 

A dvocate and start to take action. There are several things we can all do to contribute and become involved. Racism is a problem of an enormous scale but we don’t have to feel helpless or powerless. If you’re an employer, start to show real commitment about your seriousness to combat racism. Encourage dialogue within your organization, review hiring practices, develop a truly diverse workforce. If you’re an employee, apply pressure where you can to hold your employer to account. The same with our elected political officials. And of course, protest. Find peaceful ways, however small, to show your dissatisfaction with status quo. My 81 year old Mom stood up for 9 minutes as a mark of respect at the George Floyd memorial service because she felt that’s the least she could do. There are numerous organizations which support social justice and equal rights that require funding to do their jobs more effectively. Do your research and give to one or some you feel most closely aligned to. Support black or minority owned business, regardless of which racial background you’re from. 

C all it out. When we see it, we have to point it out. We have to create our own system of checks and balances around racism. Wherever we see it happen round us, at home, in the workplace, wherever, call it out. Doesn’t have to be aggressive, just firm. And consistent. Ask those around you to be your check and balance too. So if you by chance make a racist slur or do something racist, they can call you out too. We’ve been trained for too long to think a certain way about color, to refer to each other in a particular way, to let certain things slide. Think social distancing is bad? Try social conditioning. That’s what we have to begin chipping away. And make meaningful change. Be brave and fearless. Call it out.

E ducate. And Elevate. Because I never saw this as really part of my problem to solve, I didn’t inform myself enough. And I know I still have tons to learn. But what I do know better now is just how systemic racism really is for Blacks in America. In education (you’re not smart enough), healthcare (your pain is not as bad as you’re making it out to be), employment (you’re not qualified enough), financial access (you’re too much of a credit risk), everyday societal interaction (you’re a threat to my livelihood). It’s everywhere. And a big part of my education is to simply listen more. Black Lives Matter is a perfect example. Black Lives Matter is a cry for help. It is an appeal from a historically disadvantaged segment of this society to be heard, and listened to. It is a reminder that a black life has value too. It is not a useless commodity that is easily expendable. I understood this on a very superficial level in the past, but never fully grasped all of it. And because I didn’t inform myself sufficiently, I often sympathized with other groups who might have been feeling left out. But that’s the whole point. Black people have felt left out for centuries. So if you are one who sympathizes with All Lives Matter (as I naively did in the past) and use it as a response to BLM, consider that what you’re really doing is glossing over, ignoring, and disregarding a cry from a people who have disproportionately suffered and been treated as less than for as long as they could remember. I listen to my wife Sonja lead and navigate her work colleagues through this education process every day. Like my son, she teaches me a great deal too. And this is the place where we all have to get. Learning from each other and growing together. They say a rising tide lifts all boats. Time for us all to be that tide. And lift all the boats. Including the black boats. Especially the black boats.

RIP George Floyd. Thank God, you can breathe now.