We condemn racism, ethnocentrism, tribalism, and any
ideology or social practice based on false and misleading beliefs or ideologies
that one group of human beings is superior to all other groups of human beings.
From the 2024 Social Principles of the United
Methodist Church, Social Community-Other Social Issues-L
Having been born and lived my youngest most
formative years in an exclusively white county in Tennessee during the late
1950s and early 1960s, and having been born into a family that believed that
“white” was the only authentic people in society, my first perception of
non-white people was that they “are not quite the fullness of white people”.
And then, at some point while I was in grade
school (or elementary school as I was soon to learn) my family moved to Detroit
looking for work.
The school I attended in Detroit in 1964 was
A.L. Holmes which had a large population of black kids, Puerto Rican kids, and
South American kids. At this school I was introduced to new and interesting
ways to think about music, poetry, and world-view. Silly as it may seem, my
transformative moment occurred when I was standing in line for lunch. Black
kids in front of me, black kids behind me, and I felt awkward. I did not know
how to relate to anyone but a white person. And then, from down the hallway, I
heard a gathering of black girls talking and one said “Hey, let’s go talk to
that cute white boy.” At that moment my mind had changed and my heart was open
to allowing these girls into my friendship construct.
At some point I transferred from A.L. Holmes
to Carstens Elementary.
It was at Carstens that I
found new friends, one from Egypt, one from Saudi Arabia. I learned about
Islam. My Egyptian friend next door taught me the meaning of the phrase “people
of the Book”, meaning Quran. I learned that Jews and Jesus followers are people
of the Book. We have a favorable place in their faith.
By the time I had moved from Detroit to
Elkhart County Indiana in 1969, I had accepted that many races, nationalities,
and religions gave life much more meaning and fulfillment than just being
around Baptist white people all of the time.
I had also learned that I, as a white
person, experienced much more ease of social mobility than did nonwhite people.
While in Detroit, it seemed that the white teachers, intentionally or not,
showed favor to me over black kids regarding just about any opportunity
including serving on Student Council. This type of favor tends to instill
within a person a sense of preference or superiority. But, having developed
friendships with black kids, I learned that they were very smart, talented, and
capable. I learned early that many people are left out of opportunities and “social
place” merely because of their race.
Regardless of the contemporary push against
the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion movement, I assert that America, and every
State or Territory of the United States, will benefit from proactively
providing opportunities for nonwhite people to have opportunities in employment
and education.
I encourage intentional efforts to reach
beyond the most prevalent demographic (white people) in employment and
education, to give nonwhite people equal opportunity. Perhaps Human Resource
departments can devise methods of providing to the interviewer/hiring agent
only job-relevant information which does not include name and address. Perhaps
identify the applicant as Candidate 10 AM, Candidate 3PM, or some other blind
nomenclature. Often, name and address can inadvertently allow the interviewer a
prejudiced pre-opinion even before meeting the applicant. The applicant,
regardless of race, age, gender, nationality, or religion, should have equal
opportunity to apply.
Notably, in all of the current movement
against DEI initiatives, it is worth pointing out that the Congressionally
passed Equal Opportunity Act is still in effect. You may visit the official
eeoc.gov website to see that such laws still pertain. Particularly informative
is the eeoc site https://www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants which explicitly states the protected
classes.
I acknowledge that many white people have
felt discriminated against.
I have not escaped negative discrimination
in my life. As a student in school, elementary, Junior and senior high, I was
the last person chosen for a sports team. Any time I tried out for a sport I
did not make the cut. This was because, compared to other students trying out,
I was short, frail, non-muscular. And so, the team was fixed before I had a
chance to prove myself. But, what I lacked in the previously identified
attributes, I more than compensated with my agility, responsiveness, and
quickness. Yet, how was a coach to discover those attributes without looking
beyond my appearance and giving me a chance to prove myself in action.
I remember a time when, in high school,
during Physical Education class I committed myself to exceeding my previous
number of pull-ups each day. One day, while the teacher was watching and counting,
he replied “If this had been a sanctioned competition, you would have broken a
school record”. One would never have guessed by looking at my arm muscles. But
I had previously learned the trick of cadence, breath, and focus to achieve the
objective.
Records can be broken if we take the
initiative to look beyond appearance, race, religion, nationality, language,
gender and all other personal attributes that are not relevant to the job or
task.
To borrow and repurpose a phrase from Thomas
Payne: We have it within our power to remake America. Let’s prove our
exceptionality by making real the idea of “all men are created equal”.
