Taking time to educate myself

LinkedIn is a platform for professional networking, education and development. This post has nothing to do with any of those. This post is about systemic racism in the United States.

Like many of you, I've spent the days since May 25th questioning a lot of my assumptions about life in the United States. It reminds me of how I felt after Katrina or Newtown only worse. It was that feeling of utter helplessness in the face of such a pressing issue as systemic racism. Katrina was about socioeconomic disparity and government's inability to protect its citizens. Newtown was about the proliferation of legal high-powered assault weapons combined with the vexing issue of mentally illness. George Floyd's death is entirely different. It is about a culture, a society, that cannot escape the original sin of slavery, no matter how many years go by. Why? I think because we've never truly dealt with our past and how it affects our beliefs and behavior today.

This topic is very difficult to talk about. In fact, it's so difficult that I've done very little talking about it in the last few weeks despite the fact that I'm a manager with almost 100 people reporting to me. I have been in receive mode, listening to what others who have experienced systemic racism have to say. I am acutely aware that I'm a white male in the US born into a middle class family and even though I think I worked hard for what I have, I know I was born on 3rd base. So, what should someone like me, maybe like you, do about where we find ourselves today? I don't know the whole answer but I think I know the beginning of the answer and that is to stop what your are doing and really educate yourself with facts. The company I work for is nice enough to be giving us Friday afternoon's off during the summer to help alleviate some of the stress as we all work from home. So it only seemed appropriate to take time off from data, technology, and management and focus on this issue. I decided that the least I could do was use my Friday afternoon off to take in as much information as possible. To listen as much as I could in one afternoon. It's not much but it's a start. And even though I considered myself a student of history, I realized very quickly that I don't know enough.

I'm in no position to tell anyone what they should watch, read, or listen to in order to educate themselves on systemic racism. I will share with you what I watched, read, and listened to and would encourage you to share with your friends and family what you did to educate yourself. If we could ever agree on a common truth, we can start to fix the problem. Thank you to those who shared these materials with me.

• 13th on Netflix
• Lynching Museum in Montgomery AL
• Life of Privilege Explained in $100 Race.
• Jordan Uhl's Twitter Feed
• Dave Chapelle's '8:46'
• Radiolab 'Graham'
• Volume 1, Resources 9: Absolutely Massive List of Anti-racist Resources for Black Lives Matter Allies

Science is Real. Black Lives Matter. No Human is Illegal. Love is Love. Women's Rights are Human Rights. Kindness is Everything.