A few weeks ago I sat, at a distance, with my parents for dinner, and I explained the difference between equity and equality to my mom. I did so using the illustration below.

When a Medium article popped up in my inbox and I read about how this visual example is actually white supremacy at work, I felt frustrated. I felt like am I just doing it wrong every time I talk about racism?
I can’t be wrong every time. But perhaps that’s my white fragility talking. My tendency to get offended by being set straight.
I put that reaction aside, read on, and learned that yes, in fact, that ILLUSTRATION IS WHITE SUPREMACY AT WORK!
It’s explained to well that when you’re done, you think, oh. Well, yeah, that’s really obvious now that you explain it. And then I embrace that familiar feeling of needing to readjust what I know. It’s an interesting thing – shifting over and over, but I accept it if it means learning and bettering.
The article gave me a lot of food for thought. The sloping ground handicaps otherwise equal folks. I myself have intuitively felt this way and seen over my many years in business how such institutional concepts as “good old boy networks”, “exclusive” club memberships, the “old school tie,”unequal pay for equal work“, stereotypical thinking, “not the right fit”, lack of mentoring, etc. etc. have worked to disadvantage many otherwise qualified people.
For a good read on how the government was complicit in fostering segregation in urban areas, I highly recommend “The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein.
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Thank you, for sharing Franklin. Yes! The Color of Law is on my list. I tried to listen to it a while back but have learned that when it comes to books about racism, I cannot listen. It just doesn’t absorb in my mind in an effective way. So I’ll get it in print. Once I’m done with “Me and White Supremacy”…and then “The New Jim Crow”…and then White Fragility which I haven’t actually gotten to either (because I tried in audio form)
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