As a black person in America, I have a constant underlying sense of unease. Periodically, there is a news story, or several, to remind me why that unease exists. Whether you are a Harvard-educated ornithology enthusiast or a possible forgery suspect, there is an element of suspicion associated with your being as a person who presents as black in this country. It’s mentally and emotionally exhausting, especially as someone whose whole job is about encouraging people to be hopeful and intentional about improving their circumstances.
Elements of this current time in American history seem eerily similar to me to the summer of 2016. If you aren’t a black person in the USA, you might not remember. That is when Philando Castile in Minnesota, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Terence Crutcher in Oklahoma were all shot and killed by police while unarmed. At the time, I was so dejected and discouraged as a black person, because most white people didn’t seem to care.
That summer confirmed to me that protecting my black body required ensuring white people cared about me and my humanity when I was in their presence. More disturbingly, it was evident they didn’t have to do so to live perfectly content existences side by side with mine. That was the summer I realized I lived in a country where it was totally possible our current POTUS could be elected. Not electing him would require enough people to care about issues that weren’t necessarily directly pertinent to them, even if they were morally just.
Everything I saw in summer 2016 made it seem to me like we as black Americans didn’t have the numbers when it came to white people who cared about us. I think that’s why November 2016 election results didn’t affect me the same way it did a lot of my non-black friends. I’d already gone through all that angst, anger and tears about our country’s troubling truths earlier in the year.
For some reason, 2020 is different. Now, white people across the globe are paying attention to the mistreatment of black Americans. Since I will always be a curious student at heart, part of me wants to understand what sparked this change of priorities. However, I’m also a coach who realizes the why isn’t super important right now. Strategies for capitalizing on that attention in order to make progress are. Thus, my one very big ask from those who want to be better allies to black people this summer is to be actively anti-racist.
This anti-racist lifestyle starts with countering and calling out every day bigotry and bias from people you actually like. It’s easy to decry folks like our POTUS because he is cartoonishly horrible in so many ways. If you ask your black friends, they will likely agree with me it’s the people who don’t think they are racist who cause some of the most widespread damage.
You don’t have to join a white nationalist group to be racist when our country was founded with white supremacy baked right in. There are plenty of blue-voting, NAACP-donating liberals passing along offensive beliefs to their kids, sitting on the juries that incarcerate black men at higher rates and mismanaging pain control for emergency department patients of color. Voting for Obama didn’t automatically dispel the effect of centuries of systemic racism from anyone’s soul.
That being the case, when your friend says something clearly bigoted, question them about why they said it. When your family uses terms that are problematic, check them in the moment. I do that regularly with friends and family who make broad generalizations about folks of certain religions, sexual orientations or cultures that are different than my own. Without awareness, there will be no substantive change. There still might not be. I simply can’t sit idly by and implicitly co-sign on ignorance from my loved ones. I hope you can’t either anymore.
Thank you to those who want to help us all be better as a society. As I tell my coaching clients, it takes regular awareness and intention for progress to happen. When we wait for a crisis to take action, we barely hold ground.
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Dr Jattu Senesie is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, certified success coach, physician satisfaction specialist and speaker. She blogs about issues of self care and well-being in an effort to help her fellow altruistic high achievers find satisfaction in their success as early in their careers as possible.
