I’m a person who gets Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day off of work, and I’d be lying if I said that I don’t always look forward to the three-day weekend that comes just a couple weeks after getting back into the swing of the new semester. I’m exhausted because working five days a week should be illegal. It’s so easy to be excited about having an extra day off of our jobs, but this is not a day of rest. MLK did not rest in his pursuit for equality. In remembering him, we need to do more than enjoy a binge marathon on Netflix.
My husband and I have been listening to panels of local (or locally-tied) Black professionals discuss what steps need to be taken moving forward to continue the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The messages have been empowering and informative and all with a similar message of rising above hate and continuing to work to educate communities to create more inclusive environments.
I know I’ve been naive. It has probably only been in the last five years that I’ve really come to understand how I was lied to when it came to learning American history. The way we teach the Civil Rights Movement to kids across the country is to show pictures of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. peacefully holding hands with his fellow advocates walking down streets. We don’t see the hate, we don’t see people being beaten by police, we don’t hear the death threats, and we don’t hear the slurs being spit. We basically get told that people marched peacefully, there was a little bit of push back, and then America wasn’t racist anymore.
Lori Sutton, from J.A.D.E. Consulting, made a suggestion today that I feel is important. Sit down with someone who doesn’t look like you and ask to hear their story. You don’t have to ask adults. Unfortunately in my line of work, I have been the trusted adult for children on many occasions to tell me the racism they’ve encountered in their lives.
Becoming anti-racist is a process. No one is ever just fully anti-racist. We are human, and we make mistakes or judgements that we need to repent for. That being said, we should all be moving forward to become anti-racist and creating environments of love and support for all of our neighbors.
The first thing we have to do is call out racism when we see it and call it what it is. When your racist uncle says something stupid, call him racist. People get so offended by being called racist because they know the weight of that word and the weight of that label. But if they’re saying racist things publicly, they’re racist. Period. End of discussion.
Two, support Black-owned or minority-owned businesses. Did you know it is harder for people of color to get necessary funding to start a business? Seems crazy right? I could get a loan for a boob job tomorrow if I wanted to, but Black entrepreneurs have to jump through hoops to start pursuing their own dreams.
Three, teach your kids there are people in the world who don’t look like them, think like them, believe like them and that it’s GOOD. Not that it’s okay, but it is GOOD that we have so many different types of people and families represented in our world. Kids can handle more than we give them credit for. We don’t sugar coat injustices, but we also don’t watch the news. We provide our children with the necessary information for them to know that some people are racist and that being racist is bad. We use the word, and we talk about what our jobs are when we see racism happening.
If you’re like my family who lives in a predominately white neighborhood and whose kids go to predominately white schools, you have to find ways to introduce diverse situations to your children. Before COVID-19, we enjoyed community events that allowed us to experience cultures outside of our own. In a far more isolated, pandemic-driven world, we read. This one is EASY and so important. Make sure your at-home library has plenty of books that represent cultures outside of your own. It is not hard to find books with Black leads, so buy them and read them.
Jo is a Mess 