By Rick GarciaIt doesn’t matter if you’re White, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red or any combination of our “Hue” man race. It does matter if we don’t have a conversation about race. Racism is another ball of wax, but for purposes of examining our current state of the current socio-economic challenges, we have to look at race for what it is: fear of what is not known.
Last week at a workshop sponsored by the Prosperity Coalition, an initiative through the Michigan League for Public Policy, I was able to get more answers and more important, a better understanding of why race matters not only in our region, but the entire country.
Maya Wiley, Founder and President of Center for Social Inclusion, is a civil rights attorney out of New York known for her expertise on race and racism throughout the country, was the keynote speaker at the Prosperity Coalition’s bi-annual gathering in Novi entitled: “Talking About Race Right”.
According to her organization’s report, by 2042, the United States will be a nation comprised primarily of people of color. Even sooner, by 2032, the majority of Americans less than 30 years of age will be Latino, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American. Additionally, if persistent racial disparities and growing racial tensions accompany this demographic shift, we should all be concerned about the nation’s future well-being.
Race and Racism is not the same thing. We behave at a conscious level and attribute our encounter with people of color by stereotyping or attributing characteristics by assuming he’s a criminal, she’s smart, or they are alcoholics.
Throughout my career in various workplaces throughout the country, I have been known to be a hard-working Latino while at the same breath a lazy, gang-banger. Another instance, I was an Asian skilled in high-technology, yet a bad driver. The same goes for a white colleague friend of mine who grew up in Alabama. He’s been known to be a southern gent, yet unintelligent and trashy.
We are in a deep time of racial insecurity and we cannot ignore racial anxiety as it impacts our livelihood. In other words, we all have the same basic needs and wants and racial equity creates opportunity. It starts with a meaningful conversation at home, at the workplace and any community organizations or faith-based institutions that offer those services.
Now more than ever, we have a collective responsibility to discuss race in the context of solutions that work even in Michigan.
Wiley gave a compelling and an engaging conversation on how the use of race as a “wedge” between whites and people of color, or even between people of color, is alarmingly effective at a time when most Americans are facing economic hardships. Communities of color are disproportionately impacted, but Whites are also losing ground. If we can eliminate the race wedge, we raise the possibility of moving people around their common self-interest to support policies that promote equity and opportunity for all.
The Prosperity Coalition is a bipartisan, cross-sector statewide partnership made up of businesses, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, philanthropic groups and citizens all working together to restore and expand economic opportunity for all people in Michigan.
The aim of the organization is to restore opportunity by defining a shared and realistic plan for achieving economic prosperity and racial equity through advocacy, civic engagement and ultimately, policy change in Michigan.
To learn more about Maya Wiley’s work and her organization, Center for Social Inclusion, visit their website www.centerforsocialinclusion.org or find out how you can get involved on this arena contact the Prosperity Coalition in Lansing www.prosperitycoalition.org
Rick Garcia, a nonprofit executive, a civil rights advocate, blogger and a contributing writer for The New Citizens Press can be reached at rrgarcianrg@gmail.com
This was printed in the October 6, 2013 – October 19, 2013 Editon
