Invisible in plain sight

It feels impossible to stay in a state of love in moments like now. Yet love is what we most need as it affords infinite possibilities. We can love our children, our friends, our work, and our loved ones all at the same time, even while we remain outraged at what is happening around us. Love is equitable. But equity and love demand that we look to truth by actively learning the breadth of stories of people of African descent and uncovering the history of the diaspora that is hidden in plain sight. It is up to each of us to seek out that truth so we can assure a better tomorrow.

On the surface, I appear “African American.” In reality, I am a black woman, born in Jamaica, who became a citizen of the United States in my 20s. As a girl, I learned the broad history of my island home. Though you may know Jamaica for its beautiful beaches, rhythms of Bob Marley, and “No Problem” tagline, many of us on the island have limited resources. The reality was that my family barely had enough to afford simple pleasures. Opportunities were few and usually involved exiting the country. Members of my immediate family joined the great migration of black people north to countries that promised economic prosperity – my direct family is spread across the United States, England, and Canada. (You can read about the great migration in The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson). But how would we have known that in countries that seemed prosperous, black people were living similar realities to us? Like many diasporic people, we were not taught world history that included the struggles and triumphs of indigenous Africans in the United States. That knowledge was subtracted, erased, from the history.

In the 1990s my mother, a registered nurse, leaped at an opportunity to increase her income when she was recruited to help combat the nursing shortage, quickly accepting an offer to move to New York City. It seems coincidental that we came to New York City, but the fact is that 50% of the 3 million people from the Caribbean who live in the United States reside in NYC. She emigrated with meager resources but went on to earn a bachelors degree in nursing while attending school at night. She also provided for my sister and me; we each earned advanced degrees - becoming a pharmacist and a business leader respectively. To many it seems like we were finally advancing out of the negative into the positive; after all, our economic standing had improved. We even witnessed the election of our first biracial president, so we were clearly well past the hardships of the Civil Rights era, right? But in reality, the economic situation of black people barely changed. In The Economic State of Black America in 2020 the Joint Economic Committee reported: “During the majority of the past 50 years, Black Americans have experienced unemployment rates that, were they experienced by the entire populations, would be seen as recessionary. Black Americans are twice as likely to live in poverty as White Americans.”

But with little knowledge of US history, I, like so many, did not understand the foundation that led to these inequities. I knew there had to be more to the story, so I was grateful when my daughter entered the American school system. She was the first generation to receive all her education in the United States so my entire family rested in the misguided belief that we could learn American history through Amina. Sadly, this was not the case. I quickly grew frustrated when I witnessed my then kindergartener displaying symptoms of internalized racism, wishing her curls were straightened and her black hair blonde. I was fortunate, however, to join a community of volunteers at GrassROOTS Community Foundation, a training institution with the mission of helping all girls grow up to be healthy women. For the past decade at GrassROOTS, Amina and I have learned the truth about race and racism and the tools to help dismantle the system of racism that is bred by prejudicial beliefs and manifest discriminatory actions.

The truth is that America has been systematically subtracting resources from black and brown communities, and my story, though wonderful, did not represent the reality of those who had made it possible for my family and me to come to the US, our enslaved ancestors. The original insult of the enslavement of African people depleted wealth and resources from African people, and Americans became wealthy. And the effort to extract more and more resources meant that the majority of people who looked like me were suffering. America’s actions were not happening in isolation. Everywhere that there were African people, the equation was the same—subtract, subtract, subtract. The outcome of this systematic extraction was a deficiency in the health and wealth of black people.

In the back of your mind, you might be wondering what this has to do with now. White supremacist actions seem to be confined to only certain parts of America. But that is a myth. Only last year, on my way home from Purchase, NY, to my home in an affluent part of Northern NJ, my SUV was almost run off the highway on a well-lit day by a monster truck that first tailgated my car. The driver swung around my car and rode really close, looked me in the eye as he flipped up his middle finger and hit the gas. On the back of his truck were stickers communicating his dislike of people of African descent. I was so shaken that I slowed my car and drove the rest of the way home looking in my rearview mirror. I never thought to call the police or to report the incident. If you talk to a black person, he or she will tell you a few awful personal stories like this one that happened to them in plain sight.

So how can you help? Join me in making this invisible history visible. Armed with knowledge, we can together foster equity. My quick cheat sheet is this:

1) Learn the history.

• Read “A Young People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn
• Read “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson

2) Understand and name racism.

• Watch Dr. Janice Johnson’s “Practical steps for equity”
• Watch Camara Jones’ TedX “Allegories of Race and Racism”
• Watch Kimberle Crenshaw’s TedTalk “The Urgency of Intersectionality”

3) Invest.

• Consider donating to the ACLU, Black Lives Matter, or bail funds for protestors
• Support training of black girl changemakers of GrassROOTS Community Foundation

Together, we can dismantle racism. In love and justice,

Lisa Maxwell