After the killing of George Floyd in May, the country began to shape up and reach out to Black people. Diversity and inclusion began to come up in almost every conversation, and there was a spotlight on how our community felt in every space we inhabit.
Various friends reached out to me, family members shared the different ways they'd been addressed, and my supervisors called me to see how I was doing in the midst of the changes resulting from the protests and demonstrations.
Now that Jacob Blake, another Black man, has been shot unnecessarily, and after reflecting on all of the responses I have received, two separate incidents stood out to me, and I can't help but see that a lot of work still needs to be done.
On social media, black squares were posted, statements from large and small corporations were sent out via email and on the front page of their websites. But has any change actually been made?
I spoke on a panel at work about being a Black mother and how other parents could and should diversify the spaces, books, shows, music, and lives of their children. We talked from the aspect of how a parent should navigate this conversation and what they can do to help their children understand what is going on.
A member of the audience wrote in a comment while I was talking and moderating the conversation. She wrote, "There seems to be a lot of things we should not do, the language should be more encouraging than a list of things not to do."
Because I was moderating, I had to quickly respond. And being in my professional environment, I didn't respond the way I initially wanted to.
I wanted to ask why there should be leeway when it comes to racism? Why shouldn't we have a "do not list," and isn't being soft on this situation part of the reason why we're still having to deal with this in our society?
I couldn't help but see that white fragility was a part of the problem, and knew that my response was going to get only so far.
I wanted to ask why there should be leeway when it comes to racism? Why shouldn't we have a 'do not list,' and isn't being soft on this situation part of the reason why we're still having to deal with this in our society?
Then, a week later, I was grabbing something from my office. A coworker and I were talking about how this pandemic continued to spread, and she mentioned that perhaps the protests needed to stop because it was a place where the virus was spreading, and … essentially, they had made their point.
With another unnecessary shooting of an unarmed Black man happening recently, I wanted to send her that news article and ask, "Do you still think it's enough when the problem continues and my community of people are still not safe?"
These two instances that happened at work after the country had supposedly "woken up" to how terrible racism still is paints a picture of how far we really have to go.
My experiences these past few months have been relatively minor instances in which I've had to defend the need to confront an institution that has oppressed millions of people for hundreds of years. Others have it much worse.
