How the Recent Race Protests Have Changed How I Write on Medium

What needs to be in my work and should have been all along, had I been attending more carefully

The last several months have brought a plethora of articles which have ranged from raging to pleading to blaming to hate. I’ve been reading, absorbing, and asking the kinds of hard questions that offer insight and with luck, some grace around where I stand on so many of those issues.

While some of the articles I have read are just as racist as those supremacists about whom people are justifiably angry, most are at the different end of the spectrum. Black writers I’d already been following have weighed in with their own unique viewpoints, their circumstances. I’ve also begun to follow many more people as what’s been showing up on my feed has expanded.

Those expand me, and you, should we let them. I’ll circle back to this in a moment.

The last few stories I’ve written that have been about better diets, getting outside to hike and being more mindful of our health as we age are different. I’ve been including paragraphs that point out those conditions which are uniquely different for the Black community.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve always known that. Doesn’t matter that I have cared about it, lived it, seen it.

What matters is that I didn’t specifically point to those issues in my articles. As a result of not doing so that perpetuates the lie that all is well. And implicit in that, albeit this was not what I either said or intended, the lie that Black folks are just lazy or don’t choose to eat well, or take care of themselves, which is why there is an obesity/diabetes epidemic, which is part of why Covid-19 mortality is so high among Black populations.

Or that Black folks don’t camp or do international travel, and a host of other inappropriate assumptions. Our not discussing so many of these issues has a terrible way to being complicit with the lie that such things are normal.

No. They aren’t. Not only that, it ignores reality. That too many White folks’ reality doesn’t include what is real for people of color is part of the problem. A big part.

It isn’t just that the fact of Black Excellence for very many people is a myth. When we know about it, see it, live it and interact with Black Excellence and then don’t write about it regularly to lift it up and normalize it, then we are part of the problem. People can look around- and they do- and point out that well, they can’t see it, therefore it can’t be real.

As in a friend’s breathtaking comment the other day that well, she doesn’t know anyone with Covid, therefore it can’t be real.

That is no different in many ways than blaming the rape victim for being raped, something to which I have been subjected. To say that I understand how this feels is an understatement.

That said, being made aware that how I write, the topics I address which have always been intended to be inclusive, means that I need to be far more sensitive to and aware of how my topics can exclude the Black and Brown communities. It’s not just that organic chicken at some distant Whole Foods is vastly beyond their means. Mine, too, but that’s not the point.

It’s that there isn’t much they can do about being imprisoned in place, with lousy air, lousy if not poisonous water, lousy food, lousy conditions, lousy if any healthcare, and being collectively blamed for all of that. As in, well, they like living there.

Really? Honestly? Truly? You really want me to believe that Black and Brown communities are perfectly happy to be forced to live next to Superfund sites that take decades to clean up? Forced to drink lead-tainted water which damages children’s brains and bodies? Would YOU accept such conditions?

Please. If those were such luxury spots to live, why don’t we White folks live there?

And that our police forces- or at least too many within them- intend to keep Them in There. God help us that they can actually get out to breathe.

So I’ve been making some changes.

This is an excerpt from a piece I just did on aging:

Please note: I am well aware that poverty, access to health care, race, availability of decent food and many other critical factors come into play; this article doesn’t seek to address that. That’s a whole other piece.

and

However, you can-and should- also make the argument that a poor healthcare system, food deserts, grinding poverty, terrible anxiety (as a result of Existing While Black, Hispanic, etc.) lack of education, access to decent housing and intense pressure from corporate marketing to EAT THIS EAT THAT and the cheap availability of poisonous food make health damned hard indeed.

Add to that the current move towards dismantling any and all environmental progress to clean up our air, our water, our oceans and food sources. Especially toxic Superfund sites where the marginalized are forced to live. But that’s another issue.

The reason I am calling this out is several-fold. First it would have been more responsible of me to make this kind of differentiation a lot sooner. As a result, I perpetuate impressions, whether or not I intend to, which continue to marginalize and critique people whose life conditions are a result of benefits I enjoy by being White.

This is what is meant, in part, by not recognizing our privilege. While that word has been weaponized, our inability to understand what is given us by right of White makes us incredibly ignorant to what is real for folks of color.

In a recent article by fellow Medium writer Rebecca Stevens A., she describes how her white corporate mentor simply assumed that she, as a Black woman, had access to the same networks and resources he did. While that was innocent on his part, that also leads to those very same folks’ blaming us as women or Blacks or disabled folks for not taking advantage of those resources…when the doors have forever been barred and locked to us from the other side. This is where we can be utterly ignorant.

When you and I take the time to read such pieces, we learn. Our understanding of so-called “reality,” which may only be true for us and our kind, if you will, has to shift. But we have to be open to shifting. And, kindly, we also have to be willing to do the reading.

If only we took better care of ourselves as a free-standing sentence does not respect the true conditions which are imposed on a great many people. The statement assumes options. Too many don’t have those options.

Second, if I do not respect those conditions (I am not an expert on them, nor should I try to speak with authority on them, that is for better writers than I to address), then I am simply avoiding what is and has always been in my face.

In all our faces.

As I’ve written elsewhere, discomfort is the handmaiden of growth. Those good people, Black friends who have been my friends these many long years and new ones, have been kind enough to continue both our connection and our friendship through these times. Not because they owe it to me but because they know I will listen, I will hear them, and I will not shy away from what changes I need to make.

One of them is to change what I write and how I write about it.

Those Black writers whose words I not only respect but also enjoy, and whose words have seared deeply uncomfortable brands on my largely comfortable white soul, have forced me to question who and what I leave out when I write. Whose conditions I ignore. What assumptions I make about my audience.

If I have the conceit to address an inclusive audience, then am I taking into account those who don’t have access to a decent supermarket? a safe place to walk? who can’t bird watch without being watched themselves? And if I am not being mindful of who cannot do what I am suggesting, what does that say about the blinders I’m wearing? That any of us as White writers are wearing?

I read a comment the other day on a deeply painful article by a Black male faculty member who had been pulled over for questioning because “he fit the profile.” He had been terrified, and it caused him so much angst he couldn’t teach that day. One White male wrote that he’d been pulled over, his trunk searched, get over it, it happens.

The appalling level of tone-deafness left me gasping for breath. You can’t even begin to compare the two experiences, not when yet another Black man gets shot seven times in the back. You and I as White folks cannot begin to understand centuries of racial history that weigh in on a routine pullover. We can’t. There is nothing routine about being pulled over if you’re Black.

You and I cannot understand that the words Be careful out there, spoken by Black parents to their kids and to each other, are compulsory and as knee-jerk as “have a nice day.” In effect, please make it home, not, enjoy your day.

These are hard questions. For all of them force me to see who has been forced to the sidelines when it comes to what you and I as White people consider reasonable options.

I do not possess the expertise to write about what people can do to increase their health options when living in those conditions. Nor can I thoughtfully address the policing issue that ensures that hardly a day goes by that doesn’t involve a police shooting, which nearly always means another body of color bleeding to death on the sidewalk. That, kindly, is precisely why we have protests right now. Those are huge issues which need systemic change.

On the individual writer level, however, it is my duty to call out and make note in my articles where people can find communities which are supportive of their desire to be outside safely. I did that in my recent piece about rekindling a workout program later in life.

In that I listed those organizations of Black, Hispanic, disabled and other communities which create opportunities to get out in nature.They are nowhere big enough, but greater interest and involvement in them will grow those organizations. And, the best outdoor clothing companies are well aware of the changing demographics as well as the changing need for clothing to fit larger, disabled and other athletes who are heading to the woods.

Where, kindly, they belong.

I’m not going to change the lanes where I have expertise. What I will change is my responsibility to point out inequities which exist in the worlds which I write about. One of them is the fitness world. Recently I saw this by fellow Medium writer Sarah El Gharib, who does a terrific job of outlining how fitness is uniquely identified with White women. Even yoga is hijacked from the Brown community which originated it five thousand years ago.

Part of what I’ve hoped to do lately is find articles written by and about the Black experience which have given me deeper insight and understanding. Those voices which have challenged me and offered education where I very much needed it. I have no intention of apologizing for being White, which I can’t help. I can indeed get busy changing what I say, write and do. That’s one hell of a lot more useful and impactful.

The other thing that I do naturally but have found plenty of opportunities to do more of is highlight and link to Black writers whose work I like, and whose work I wish to amplify. That is a natural habit anyway, but ever more important right now. While most of those writers are women of color, I have also found men whose work intrigues and challenges me. When I share their voices, I introduce them to my followers, and that amplifies their words. This is a fundamental precept of allyship.

Please, kindly, a black square on your Facebook page IS NOT BEING AN ALLY.

If you and I have the conceit to be allies, inclusion, support and linking arms takes work. Real blood sweat and tears, the risk of censure by our friends, the risk of disapproval of family or folks who don’t want to take part. You may lose people.

But what you will gain, well. When I wrote this article recently about Diversity and Inclusion programs:

the comments I received from people whose work I truly respect nearly brought me to my knees.

Such work that you and I do, how we promote and include, how we engage and learn from one another has the potential to change lives, and in doing so, change the direction of a country seriously off the rails. The future of America is diverse. The future of business, education, government in America is diverse. Birth rates alone guarantee this.

How you and I feel about it is utterly immaterial. Well, except for those genuinely evil operators who are doing their level best to level this country before they leave it toes up. For my part, efforts to ensure well-educated, trained, motivated, engaged people of color ensure the future of America.

Period full stop.

I spent a number of years working in that area, towards building minority economic power by helping suppliers learn to sell to the Fortune 500 (please see https://www.amazon.com/Tackling-Titans-How-Sell-Fortune/dp/098286311X)

So if I may be so bold as to make a really obvious statement: what you and I do right now, today, to promote, support, uplift Black folks, Brown folks et.al. is an investment in the future of America.

It really is just that simple.

The more we undermine, diminish, control, (try to) kill off communities of color, the more we undermine America’s future.

And yes, even as lowly Medium writers we have a role. You don’t have to work with big companies as I have done, still do, to make a difference.

You and I as Medium writers have a sacred responsibility, if we are to make a difference, to be increasingly aware of the assumptions we make about who reads us and who we are leaving out of the conversation. Doesn’t matter that we don’t mean to. Not meaning to, not intending to do harm has led us where we are today.

At the risk of being repetitive, by not speaking enough to the inequities that exist in the worlds I inhabit of travel and health, I may well perpetuate impressions and assumptions which are wrong. Costly. Hurtful.

Truth doesn’t care if I don’t like it, it doesn’t care if it makes me uncomfortable. Its only value is itself.

Along this journey, and this really ends up being the best possible news, I have made new friends. New allies. Trusted sources. I am working with one brilliant Black woman towards getting corporate contacts. Several of those relationships have blossomed into friendships, regular conversations and constant learning.

You cannot possibly put a value on such things. You can’t. You can indeed rate you life as less lively without them. Too many Americans live Wonder Bread lives and believe them full.

I beg to differ.

While I grew up with a Black family in addition to my birth family, have always and forever and always will surround myself with color and talented people of color, I honestly cannot ever get enough. I hope to be able to inspire others to find what I have found on Medium and elsewhere: a vibrant, rich community of Black Excellence, a learning community, and one which for the most part will embrace and deeply appreciate engagement, support, and a willingness to listen. Act. Become educated.

I am a military veteran. I wore a uniform to protect my country. This is how that has morphed many decades later: my commitment to the future of America is to do what I can to engage, support, develop, include and link arms with communities of color. For they are, by mid-century, going to be the majority. It is in our best interests as Americans, not just as White folks, but as Americans, to fix the education system, the health inequities, the judicial system, the prison system, corporations…oh, there is work to do. Because those systems are still set up to limit, punish, and or prevent communities of color from thriving. In fact, we in America have done all we can to burn down thriving, economically powerful communities of color:

Change is coming. I might argue strenuously that if you as White folks have kids, and they are going to have kids, you will ensure a far better future for them by doing what you can to transform the inequities. For your kids are likely to be working for, alongside and with, and kindly, marrying and having kids with, people of color. Color will soon be far more normalized than White.

Change is here. More is coming. It’s up to you and me, all of us, to make that change for the better. Our kids are counting on it.