Thriving While Black

The Act of Surviving and Thriving in the same space

Cori Jamal Williams

• Publisher: CKC Publishing House LLC
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780578236865
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Études afro-américaines

" Thriving While Black " sets out to explore the psychological and emotional consequences of being Black in corporate America. "Ain't I an American?" the famous words of Langston Hughes, is a question every Black person unwittingly asks themselves. The playing field for Whites and Blacks is not equal, whether in education, science and technology, life expectancy, earning, or social strata. Blacks have been discriminated against and excluded based on their skin color, which creates the question of what their place is in America.

There exist persistent Black inequalities in the structural make up of America; inequalities not inherent due to the differences in the abilities of Whites and Blacks but instead, due to the differences in access to opportunities between the two groups.

Black workers in corporate America have to grapple with racial microaggressions in the workplace, which often involves White workers assuming that their Black counterparts are intellectually inferior to them. Thus, Blacks are passed over when important decisions are being made because of the belief that they have nothing intellectual to bring to the table; a phenomenon that is an obstacle to the upward mobility of Blacks in different organizations.

" Thriving While Black " portrays that Blacks are Americans too and should not have to be seen as less and unequal! Their humanity should not be reduced to mere negative stereotypes. If America truly prides itself in diversity, there shouldn't be a forced need for Blacks to adopt mainstream White culture, hair styling, speech mannerisms, dress codes, etc., and neglect their own African-American identity just to fit into corporate America. The beauty of diversity is not gathering different and diverse people and trying to make them act the same way. Instead, it is bringing diverse people together and allowing their diversity to thrive. This is the focus of this book.

CHAPTER ONE

SEAT AT THE TABLE

As a child, I imagined growing up, attending college, getting a degree, and climbing up the social ladder. For me, going to college meant that I would have a better chance at life and that I would be able to live up to my full potential without any restrictions. However, this dream of mine as a child is far from the reality. The progression higher up the social ladder reveals the presence of fewer African Americans. We are regarded as the minority, and this minority position could be seen by some people to be the reason why fewer Black people are found up the social ladder. Some might be quick to say that Black people are lesser than white people in the larger population, and because of this and statistically speaking, there would be a smaller ratio of Black people compared to those who are white in places with a ‘random’ selection of people. Places like colleges, boardrooms, and basically places of influence; some people may think that placement into these areas of influence is solely based on merit. If you merit it, then you should be there, and thus, the presence of fewer African Americans in these places can be said to be because they did not merit it, but is this true? Before any talk of merit can be discussed, there needs to be a conversation about equality of opportunity. You cannot know whether an individual would merit a position if they never had access to the position in the first place, or have access to positions that would predispose them to exhibiting their inherent capabilities and abilities that would be later suited for the position. Basically, you cannot talk about merit if a certain group of people are limited from exploring their inherent capabilities and potentials. African Americans, from the beginning, have been restricted from exploring their potential, but have instead been weighed down by a cage of stereotypes that has for decades, ensured that they remain at the lower rung of the societal ladder. The few that struggled to squeeze their way through the noose placed around African Americans and managed to climb up further, are still not free from the clutches of stereotypes.

A walk through history

Like I said earlier, there cannot be a conversation about merit and accessibility to the sphere of influence for Black people without a conversation about equal opportunity for them, and for there to be a conversation about equal opportunity, there has to be a walk through African American history. African Americans trace their history to slavery. Black people were brought as slaves to America, and they basically were used by their white slave owners to do menial jobs. These slaves worked in terrible conditions on plantations, as household staffs and service workers. They were involved in plowing the fields, planting, harvesting, and the processing of crops. They were also involved in rearing livestock. They took care of the houses. They worked in factories, and because they were slaves, their labor was unpaid. It is noteworthy to say that the U.S. economy, without the exploitation of Blacks, could not boast of the gains it currently so espouses. According to the 2019 Labor Day Report, the U.S. economy was built on the exploitation and occupational segregation of people of color, and even after the abolishment of slavery, Black people were still not regarded to be equal with white people, and there was a systemic force that ensured that Black citizens did not have access to the same opportunities as white citizens. They were encouraged to continue working for the families that had previously enslaved them. Some laws were enacted, specifically the Jim Crow law in the south, to ensure that Black people remained only as workers in domestic and farming positions. Up till this day, and even with the proclamation that Black people could work wherever they wanted, as long as they were qualified, we still see fewer Black people in positions of influence. It is not enough to say that slavery is no more, and that Black people are free. A person cannot be free if he is caged. A person cannot be free when they are not given access to opportunities. A person cannot be free when they are still reduced to unfounded stereotypes, and this has been the reality of African Americans for decades.

Would running faster make you gain more ground?

Anthony Carvevale, a research professor at Georgetown University, said that minorities are running faster but losing ground to white Americans. This comment was made after Georgetown University conducted a study that revealed that despite the level of education attained by people of color, there still exists a large racial inequality in job opportunities for people of color, compared to white Americans. This study clearly expresses the reality that minorities face in America. It is not enough to give your best, because your best most often does not translate into you getting access to the spheres of influence. There is an unwritten law in America that seeks to ensure that Black people remain at the lower rung of the social ladder, and thus Black people have remained in positions they have been inhabiting since slavery. People might be quick to dismiss this and say that it is a delusion of the Black mind, and that Black people only need to work harder, go to college, and get degrees, and that these are enough to get them a seat at the table. However, this study at Georgetown University showed that the social standing of African Americans and Latinos does not increase despite going to college. Being a minority and college graduate does not automatically mean that you would be seen better than a minority high school dropout. It is as though, in American society, there is a fixated and institutionalized idea of Black people as niggers, violent, loud, and not human enough. That idea doesn’t seem to shift, even when the Black person goes to college and proves otherwise. This doesn’t mean that Black citizens who didn’t go to college should be regarded as less, but you might think that the reason Black people don’t get their due is because of the implicit human bias that sees someone as more deserving based on their qualifications. However, for Black people, even with their qualifications, are scarcely seen as deserving. There are more white Americans holding better jobs than Black Americans. And even for Black college graduates with similar qualifications as their white peers, we see them being passed over for their white counterparts. An average white worker with an entry-level education is likely to earn more than a Black worker with an entry-level education. A report showed that in 2016, 77 percent of the good jobs were held by white workers, despite the fact that they represented 69 percent of available job holders, while Black workers had 10 percent of the good jobs, out of the 13 percent of jobs they held. What this means is that white workers hold more jobs generally than Black workers, and out of the jobs they held, they had better placement in good jobs than Black workers. However, there is an over representation of Black workers in jobs that do not require college degrees. More Black people tend to be in menial job positions. If truly there exists equality of access, we should see an equal or near equal ratio of white workers to Black workers in the good jobs that require college degrees. It is noteworthy to say that America is designed to ensure that fewer Black citizens make it to college. This of course is not contained in the law, but rather is an unwritten ethos in society.

The racial gaps between Black and white people seem to be ever widening. In a report by Philip Mazzocco, the infant mortality rate among Black people is 130 percent higher than white people. The average life span of a Black person is 3.6 years lower than a white person. There is an implicit bias in healthcare that affects the treatment a Black person receives. There is the belief, which has been fostered by research, that Black people have a higher tolerance for pain compared to white people. This belief has led to the delayed treatment Black citizens receive in healthcare, which invariably leads to more health complications and death from these complications. The median household income as stated by Philip Mazzocco, puts Black households to earn 57 percent less income than white households. The poverty rate among Black citizens is 146 percent higher than white citizens. Home ownership rates of Black people are 61 percent lower that white home ownership. These inequalities are not inherent due to differences in the abilities of Black and white people, but instead due to differences in the access to opportunities between the two groups. Black people have less connection and hence have less access to jobs. And even for those who manage to get a job, they are still treated unequally regarding wages. Reports show that as a worker’s level of education increases, wage discrimination reduces between white people and minorities. However, the difference still exists in wages. Also, the average Black child experiences less upward mobility than white children. A research study showed that for every one hundred Black children who grow up in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, less than three will make it to the top fifth as adults, while white children are four times likely to move from the bottom to the top fifth. The study also found that Black children were more likely to experience downward mobility than their white counterparts. The study estimated that less than one in ten Black children growing up at the top of the social ladder would stay there as adults.

There is also a growing inequality in the number of Black people in the field of science in America. The image of a Black scientist has historically been something that white America could not conceive due to the assumed inferiority of the average Black man. The field of science is an important one and has formed the basis of the development in the world today. In the 1980s, Black people accounted for only 2.3 percent of employed scientists and engineers. This racial inequality still exists today. Some might say that the low number of Black people in the field of science and engineering is an indicator of the inferior status of the African man. However, the reason for this is not far-fetched. Take for instance Angela, a young smart girl who was in the gifted program in middle school. Upon entering high school, she goes to see her high school counselor who is a white man with a balding head and large rimmed glasses. He asks her what she would like to become, and she says a physicist. This counselor, without looking at her impeccable records, tells her that her dream was too high and that she should settle for something less ambitious, like the arts. Angela is surprised, because all her life she wanted to be a physicist and believed she was smart enough to become one, but here was her college counselor telling her otherwise. For him, there was no way a Black girl was smart enough to become a physicist. Even Black boys are faced with such stereotypes. There are a lot of promising young Black kids who want to venture into the field of science and technology, but due to the implicit bias that Black people are not smart enough, they get sidelined and are forced to choose a different field of study. For those that struggle through high school and college and manage to get into graduate school, some drop out due to feelings of self-doubt. An average Black person that manages to get into graduate school discovers that he is either the only Black person in his class or among the few. Wanting to prove that he deserves to be in that room puts an unnecessary strain on him. It exacerbates the feelings of insecurity which could possibly lead to him to dropping out. This sadly is the reality of most Black people and hence explains the reduced number of Black people in science and technology.

The effect of slavery and Jim Crow laws is yet to lose its grip on Black lives. Black slaves were not allowed access to education and were thus denied the opportunity to maximize their potential and to make more wealth for themselves. And even after the abolishment of slavery, there was a restriction of Black citizens to menial jobs, which barely offered them enough to feed their families, let alone send their kids off to school. There was also the segregation in schools that discriminated Black workers from white workers, where white students were seen as smarter, better, and had more potential for success than the Black workers, and this resulted into feelings of inferiority among the Black students. This, coupled with the fact that an average Black student sees fewer Black people going to college and attaining prominence. It is not enough to dream big, because dreaming big and working to achieve that would not lessen the discriminate treatment of Black people. The dream of an average Black child is not to go to college, get a degree, and be at the top in their field, but to be alive. An average Black child, is from a young age, given the lecture by his parents on how he is likely to be seen and treated differently just because of his skin color. And thus, a Black child strives to survive and sees ambition as a luxury he cannot afford.

Contributions of African Americans to the development of America

Social media was thrown into an uproar in June of 2020, when an article about the possibility of Beethoven being Black surfaced the internet. There, however, is no concrete evidence for this, but the mere speculation that Beethoven could be Black was both a thing of joy and outrage in the Black community. Several people started highlighting the history of whitewashing in Europe and America. The racial origin of Beethoven has not yet been identified, but some people asked an interesting question: if Beethoven were Black, would his music have gotten the critical acclaim it did?

African Americans and their contribution to present day America has surely been erased by our history books. Jacquelyn Derouselle wrote a piece on the contributions of African American slaves to the development of America. In the piece, she mentioned that enslaved African Americans’ labor was essential for the survival of European colonies’ economies in America, from the 16th century to the 19th century. It is estimated that slaveholders extracted over $14 trillion dollars’ worth of labor from their captives. In her piece, Derouselle wrote that slaves brought with them the knowledge of growing rice to South Carolina and Georgia and taught slave owners how to cultivate the crop.

African Americans also contributed to American Evolution. The prospect of freedom encouraged many African Americans to take part in the war. Reports show that by 1783, thousands of Black Americans had become involved in the war. Some were able to secure their freedom by partaking in the war for America’s independence. Due to the difficulty to fill in enlistment quotas, states began to turn to slaves as manpower for the war. Slaves were promised their freedom if they fought in the war. There is no denying the role African Americans played in American evolution; however, their contributions were swept under the rug. The Declaration of Independence promised liberty for all men but failed to put an end to slavery.

African Americans contributed immensely to the field of medicine despite being excluded and discriminated against. The American Medical Association (AMA), which was founded in 1846, for years prevented African Americans from being members of the association based strictly on skin color. Alexander T. Augusta, Charles B. Purvis, and Alpheus W. Tucker in 1869 were denied admission into the American Medical Association despite being eligible for admission. The reason for the denial was that the association did not admit Black physicians. The AMA further refused to consult with Black physicians and excluded them from educational opportunities on the account of skin color. In response to being excluded, African Americans created their own medical organizations, and despite the level of discrimination they endured, they were still able to make significant contributions. Ernest John, an African American man, was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1883, and his ideas on cell membrane activity was of immense contribution to the field of science, as it completely changed the prevailing scientific opinion of his time. John...