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A friend of ours graduated from an ivy league business school and works as a consultant for one of the more elite consulting firms in the country. His salary dwarfs ours – somewhere around $250,000 a year. He has no shortage of stories about how hard it is for him to succeed in his career because of his race. He was one of the last people promoted at his company despite the many reviews he received stating he was one of the most valuable employees at the company. He has been approached by his employers on numerous occasions and told that they would like him to sit in on interviews with prospective employees who are black because he “understands” them. This offends him to no end because he sees himself as a token.
During our conversations, though, he often laments the fact that there are very few qualified black applicants that he sees. He says they are often too informal and behave in the interview as if they are already certain they will not get the job because of their race. He says that when they don’t get the job, he wonders if it is because of their race or if it is because of their behavior during the interview. He will also often comment that there needs to be better role models for young black men and he is tired of being pigeonholed by people whose only exposure to black culture is hip hop and rap.
The other day, shesus had an idea. She invited him to come speak to her students about opportunities. Her idea was that he could possibly inspire her students with his success. And trust me, he’s successful (as an aside, a lot of the new snacks you see from Kraft foods were his idea.) Her idea was that he would come in, tell his story of making it, and the students would learn that you don’t have to be an entertainer to succeed. The idea was encouraging, he could be a temporary role model and the students would see, in person, a young black man who makes a lot of money and does it without rapping, dealing, or shooting hoops. We were taken aback by his response.
“I’m not going out to that ghetto. Are you kidding me?? I don’t feel like getting shot for my watch.”
(note: the use of the word "you" in remainder of this post is being used in the 2nd person. It is not directed at any specific person.)
My experience has been that a lot – a lot – of people who talk about improving the situation refuse to go into those very areas that need the most help because they, too, have stereotyped the ghetto, and you know damn well that you do it. If you suddenly get lost and end up in one of “those” neighborhoods, you get nervous, you lock your car doors, you pray for the light to turn green before that guy on the corner walks over to you and after you get home, you tell all your friends about your adventure getting lost in the ghetto as if it is some kind of novelty. You tell out-of-towners what areas to avoid because they’re the bad part of town, stating your own reasons for not going there. We cannot have an honest debate nor can we hope to ever improve relations as long as we keep kidding ourselves that we have no prejudices of our own or that our prejudices are somehow better or less damaging than someone else’s.
Our friend justified his comments by saying, “I know what my people are like, especially in the ghetto. I’m not being prejudiced, it’s the truth.”
Has he ever set foot in Lawndale or any other of the “bad” neighborhoods of Chicago? No.
As long as we sit back and discuss the problems of economics and race from a distance while refusing to get our hands dirty, then anything we say, while thought-provoking, is ultimately meaningless. Shesus is doing her part on a daily basis. She spent 2 years doing her own research on this very issue for her Master's Degree and goes into those very areas every day to do something to make a change. What are you doing?
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"I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses
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