Black Lives Matter…saying or hearing those 3 simple words conjure such an array of emotions.  The sadness that it even needs to be said, wrenches my soul.  The fact that society makes it clear, in every form possible, that it is a bad thing to be Black is beyond my understanding.  The negative beliefs of Black people is embedded in the fabric of American society and thinking.  It is so ingrained that we don’t realize the affects it has on us as humans.  Because Blacks are considered sub-human, we don’t matter.

My background is considered very privileged, because I grew up in an affluent neighborhood that was 98% white.  And because of my experiences growing up in that area, my experiences of racism were both overt and covert.  It provided me the ability to be able to recognize and deal with it later in life.  It taught me to have a strong sense of self and to be proud to be a smart Black woman.

In regards to my career, I know that I got each job based on my qualifications, and an added bonus was because I also checked off the quota boxes…Black and female.  However, once in my positions, I was held to a different standard.  My White counterparts got away with doing substandard work, while my work was scrutinized and questioned if I actually did it.  My White counterparts dress code could be inappropriate and never questioned.  My standard of dress has always been beyond appropriate, because that was how I was raised, yet I was questioned or received snide comments.  I knew what these various occurrences were about, because I was taught as a child, that because I was Black I had to be better and do better than Whites.  The reason for this is Systemic Racism.  In some ways I would see the perpetrators were so accustomed to behaving this way, they didn’t consider their actions racist or themselves as racists.  Simply put, the actions were and they were.  Just because I was not called the N word to my face, doesn’t mean my treatment was any less damaging, if not more so.  Any time one treats another differently simply based on their skin color is disgusting, yet the norm.  And when being treated differently for the same actions as a non Black is condoned, accepted, and tolerated as the norm, society will eventually implode.

Systemic Racism is defined as “a form of racism which is embedded as normal practice within society or an organization.  It leads to such issues as discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other issues.”

This has been in place since slavery ended, we just transitioned to this type of treatment and society became conditioned to thinking this was ok because it was better than slavery and Black people should be happy with it.

I am acutely aware and not naïve to believe racist behavior or Systemic Racism will magically disappear.  However, I do believe and have every hope that people have had enough and we will not go backwards.  We as a society will move forward, and I do not know how the future will look but I do know it will be better than our past.