Let’s do our homework on race and equality

The more we learn about the roots of injustice, the better we can end it for good.

I’ll never forget the day I learned what it felt like to be underestimated because of the color of my skin.

It was the first day of fifth grade. I walked into my new private school wearing my regulation Catholic school uniform. Wool, navy blue tartan jumper with matching knee socks. Peter Pan collar with tie. Freshly shined leather shoes. My hair was styled in a short Afro, perfect for a summer spent at the pool.

I was the new kid, a transfer from a different school in another part of suburban Philadelphia. But I was confident, a strong student, and ready for anything.

Everything except for racial segregation.

I was confident, a strong student, and ready for anything. Everything except for racial segregation.

Each desk in my homeroom class was marked with an “A” or a “B.” The students in the A-group were academically on-grade level. The B-group students were placed in separate, “remedial” classes (to use the 1970s term). I would soon learn that the teachers had low expectations of these students.

My desk was marked with a “B.”

The school had not interviewed or tested me, nor it seemed, reviewed my academic record. But I had at least one thing in common with most of the kids in the lower-level group—we were all Black or Latino. Nearly every student in the A-class was white.

The teacher handed me a textbook.

“I read this last year in fourth grade,” I told her.

“Well,” she said, “you’ll read it again.”

At age 10, I didn’t have the words “systemic racism” in my vocabulary.

I was confused. I felt hurt. It stung to be misjudged.

Of course, I didn’t know the profound historical and legal forces that put children of color into different classrooms and neighborhoods across the U.S. I had yet to learn about the segregation in the Jim Crow South, or the 1954 Supreme Court decision that legally ended school segregation 24 years earlier. I didn’t know that the then-mayor of nearby Philadelphia opposed the desegregation of Philadelphia’s public schools. I just knew the school had been unfair to me.

(My mother agreed and had a few words with the teachers. I’ll get to that in a moment).

We each may have experienced, witnessed, or even perpetuated racism, but most of us do not know enough about the history behind it.

We each may have experienced, witnessed, or even perpetuated racism, but most of us do not know enough about the history behind it.

We may recognize the social and economic havoc of racism, but we don’t know how we got here.

There are two key reasons for this.

1. We don’t learn about the causes and effects of racism in school.

2. It’s a complicated, confusing, and difficult subject.

Although I have dedicated my life’s work to building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment at my company and in my community, there are gaps in my understanding.

The truth is that few of us know the dynamics below the surface. We do not know what we do not learn.

That’s why we have to work to fill those knowledge gaps.

Read hard books. Watch films that challenge us. Take classes. Engage in conversations with people of different backgrounds and listen closely when they share their experiences.

The more we learn, the better we can unearth injustice, shine a light on it, and do something to change it.

The more we learn, the better we can unearth injustice, shine a light on it, and do something to change it.

Here are four ways to deepen your knowledge about racism.

1. Read books that challenge you.

I’m always looking for books that will surprise me. The last book I read was The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein. It helped me to understand policies that segregated Americans and affected everything from housing to education, healthcare, and income equality.

Rothstein shows that the U.S. government, starting in 1933, intentionally kept African Americans out of white working-class neighborhoods through decades of unconstitutional policies and enforcement. Metro area neighborhoods across the country remain segregated, which has led to economic inequity and educational achievement gaps. Schools are more segregated today than at any time in the last 50 years.

Rothstein explains why this segregation is not “de facto,” the accident of economic circumstance or discrimination by individuals or businesses. Rather, residential segregation is “de jure,” the consequence of racially motivated public policy.

The book persuaded me to think more critically about the roots of inequality.

2. Stand up against discrimination where you see it.

After my first day of fifth grade, I went home and told my mother about landing in the B-class. At the time, my mother was a guidance counselor in a nearby public school.

She listened to my story. My parents were not paying private school tuition for a subpar education for their youngest daughter.

“We’ll see about this,” she said. I wish I had been in the room the next day when my mother met with my teachers. I don’t know what she said. Nevertheless, from then on I was in the A-class, where I excelled.

Her courage to stand up for me inspires me to take action when I see injustice.

Of course, not everyone has the resources or feels able to step in and speak out against racism. But if we can, we must.

3. Try to see the world through the lens of those different from you.

People relate to real stories. Books, films, and art can resonate in meaningful ways.

Having substantial conversations with colleagues about race can lead to learning and a deeper understanding of each other. Consider organizing book clubs or film screenings in a safe space where people can share their own stories or ask questions. I recently gathered some of our UPS executives together to view A Most Beautiful Thing, a documentary that chronicles the first African-American high school rowing team. It led to some great conversation.

Business leaders can invest in business resource groups and offer opportunities for people across their organizations to gather and discuss these topics.

4. Speak Up. Take Action.

Wherever you reside, work, study, or worship, create a space that leaves no place for hate, where people of all backgrounds can belong.

Where you encounter racism, ask questions. Do your homework. What’s really going on here? What are the facts? What is the history? Where can we find potential solutions? Don’t settle for explanations that fit inside a status update or Tweet.

From that place of knowledge, you can take action.

That’s how we can make a real difference.

From that place of knowledge, you can take action. That’s how we can make a real difference.

What are you reading, watching, and listening to? Let me know in the comments below.