A few years ago, seven of us were meeting to discuss our next steps to promote racial justice in our community. Among us, two self-identified as Black, the other five as White.
One White woman lamented that after all this time post the civil rights movement, she had thought racism would be over and shouldn’t even be an issue.
My mouth flew open and I fell out laughing.
“You actually thought racism would be over?” She nodded.
Another White person explained they were accustomed to identifying problems and solving them, so they had no reason to expect racism would be any different.
I was laughing so hard I could hardly get the words out. “All of you thought racism was going to end?” Every White person in the room nodded.
“Sure,” added another. “That’s how we were raised. We fix problems.”
The incongruity between their view of racism as a problem to be solved, and my view of it as a complex, multifaceted phenomenon deeply embedded in the foundations and tentacles of our society, was dumbfounding. I simply couldn’t stop laughing.
I could see some people were becoming indignant, so I tried to straighten up and act as though their perspective was perfectly normal, but then I would think to myself, “they actually thought racism would end,” and would break out into another round of laughing.
The whole thing was – and still is—mind-bogglingly funny to me. How is it possible that anyone could think racism would end in just a few decades? Were our worlds really that far apart? I felt like Alice stepping through the looking glass.
Even now, reflecting on that scene, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the thought that many people out there think racism can be solved in our lifetimes. For me -- and for most of the Black people I know -- this is a journey, not a destination.
In my first blog post, back in 2020, I wrote about how excited I was to see so many White people committing to advancing the cause of racial justice. Groups were forming. Organizations were rethinking their policies and expanding their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Church leaders were rallying their congregations. It was sad, of course, that tragedy brought it about, but I was so delighted that it was even happening.
And I knew there would be some retrenchment after the summer soldiers decided they couldn’t brave the winter and went back home. Yet so far, I am delighted to report, I have witnessed much less retrenchment among people I know than I had anticipated.
True, White nationalists have gained comfort and come out to defend what they are “losing” because of their zero sum mentality, but it hasn’t just been people of color who are raising objections. White people are speaking up on YouTube and Quora and news shows.
I recently hired a White woman to help me out with the business end of Leading Consciously. She has lived in the South all her life; through working with me she is slowly being introduced to the racial and social justice arena, even though her work with me is not focused on the content side of what I do.
When we meet, we usually chit chat for a few minutes before turning to business. At a recent meeting, I spoke about how frustrated I was with the recent Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in education. Then I suddenly stopped, remembering that I really didn’t know her politics. So I said as much, semi-apologizing for even bringing it up when we had work to do. That hot topic was not what we were meeting about.
She responded slowly, carefully choosing her words, “I really don’t know anything about any of it or what I think about it.” Another pause: “because I haven’t had to.” I could see that. She was White. She could live her life without ever being confronted by racial issues.
We had limited time, so we ended the conversation there.
The next time we met, she told me that she had started looking up stuff because she realized she had no notion of what to think “because I’ve never had to think about it.”
Again, the gulf between the White world and the Black world emerged like an earthquake. I could no more imagine not thinking about race then I can imagine a world where racism had ended.
The cartoon by Victor Varnado at the beginning of this Reflection succinctly illustrates the gap in perceptions. Many, maybe most of us who are Black, grew up with the awareness that we were embarked on a journey that would likely extend beyond our lifetimes. It was in the air we breathed. Our parents, teachers, and communities did the best they could to prepare us to take up the mantle and lead the way.
Others, mainly White people like those in that meeting, were initially told as children the journey had nothing to do with them at all. When they grew up and discovered we were all in this together, they resolved to identify the problem and help get it fixed. I am thankful to those who have committed to supporting racial justice.
Still others, like my business colleague, are newly discovering the journey even exists, and are beginning to figure out whether it has a place in their life.
As Victor’s cartoon says, people of all races now recognize racism exists and we are heading up the hill to do something about it, however exhausting it might be. When you are heading up a hill, the top can seem far away.
But then I remember that in my childhood in the segregated south, I was not allowed to even have a conversation with White people, much less actually talk about racial issues. I have already witnessed change.
Moving forward, I can celebrate even the small steps. A group of Whites have committed to racial justice, even though they discovered it’s not an easily solved problem. A middle-aged White woman now working with me has suddenly realized that she knows nothing about race and is starting to learn. My grandparents would be amazed.
Small steps, but if the same is being multiplied around the country – and I know it is, from what my friends are telling me – then together all of us are a formidable force. It may not be quick, we may have setbacks, we may get tired, but we are forging ahead. I am hopeful.
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Dr. Latting has 20+ years of consulting and teaching experience for private and public sector organizations and is an experienced speaker and workshop host. She is available to virtually speak to groups including executives, managers, individual contributors and community leaders to widen their multi-cultural awareness.
