Perspective can make a world of difference. When you don’t have it, you’re not understanding the whole story. Without it, you’re not able to make the best decisions. Without it, it’s easy to miss issues that are staring at you in the face that you just can’t comprehend.
With the events of this year, I decided to spend more time educating myself on the hidden barriers minorities face every day. Being born in the ’80s and growing up in the ’90s, not much time was spent in our American history lessons focused on slavery and the civil rights movement. Don’t get me wrong, we certainly spoke about it. We were taught that it happened, it was bad, and it was a solved problem that happened well before our time.
I can’t emphasize enough how painfully inaccurate that is.
I picked up this book to understand how slavery and the Jim Crow era laws and unspoken rules still impact minorities today. Furthermore, the nauseating realization that those laws were enforced at a federal level.
Outside of local segregation by-laws enacted by towns and cities, were you aware that:
- The federal housing administration allowed banks and insurance companies to increase mortgage rates from African Americans?
- Were you aware that the FDIC blocked insuring mortgages from African Americans?
- African Americans on average were charged 20% more for rent than whites? (Chicago Public Welfare report 1920’s).
- African American segregated neighborhoods prioritized to be most affected by eminent domain projects for new highways and industrial infrastructure?
And would it shock you to know some of these policies were still written into law up until the 1960s? When you’re 15, the 1960s might as well be the 1700s. But now to truly understand how minorities who are still alive experienced these disadvantages, and still suffer from their impact today is something I have never truly understood.
I’m not even scratching the surface here. This book has opened my eyes to understand just a fragment of how vast the disadvantages minorities faced in the early 1900’s and how that inability to establish wealth has impacted minority healthcare, education, and opportunity.
As I started becoming more aware of the current civil rights issues we still face today I drafted this opinion in recognition of Juneteenth on Facebook I would like to share with you:
I’m not in a position to be commenting on race relations. I’m not someone who has ever been discriminated against. I’ve never had trouble finding a job, applying for a loan, or finding a table at a restaurant. And it wasn’t until a few years ago that I understood what that privilege was. Growing up I was sheltered enough to never see what discrimination looked like unless it was used in an educational exercise. I grew up believing racism ended back in the ’60s which is what I believe a lot of Americans are taught growing up in the ’90s. I don’t know what the next best steps are to abolish discrimination but I do believe a great place to start is with education.
Through school, I remember learning about the World Wars, the Revolutionary War, our Civil War, US Presidents, famous inventors, the industrial age, the Roman empire, and even Greek mythology. While we covered some difficult US topics such as slavery and the Civil Rights movement, we tend to talk about the good outcomes and how the good guys always win. What we never seem to talk about is what actually happened that led to those times, what life was like during those times, and how awful ideologies from those times are still prevalent today.
I was shocked that it was only two years ago that I ever heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
I was shocked that up until a few weeks ago, I never even heard of the word Juneteenth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth
I was shocked that it took an episode of Adam Ruins Everything called The Disturbing History of the Suburbs for me to realize how systemic racism has affected minority homeownership and education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETR9qrVS17g
These are problems I never really knew about. These are problems I feel a lot of people living in white America never really knew about. And I believe this is the reason a lot of Americans are blind to systemic oppression. I don’t know what the best course of action is to end the discrimination issues in the country, but I do believe one of the best places to start is through education. Our history classes are designed to help us learn about our past, our glories, and our failures. History classes are meant to help us avoid repeating the same mistakes we’ve made before. By introducing more information focusing on these horrible events and how minorities have been systematically positioned at a disadvantage I believe we will start raising a more compassionate and alert generation standing for equality. I know I wish we spent more time in school learning about these events instead of Greek Mythology.
I still believe our best course of action is through education. I believe our best course of action is to understand what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. I believe it’s up to ourselves to take this seriously.
I know I have a lot more to learn and for those of you who are interested in educating yourselves, I highly recommend this book. There is no better time than NOW.
