What is Change but a Ripple in the Pond?

Happy Black History Month!

In 1981, Audre Lorde gave a keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Storrs, Connecticut. In this address, she spoke, among other things, about the uses of guilt and anger.

A talented, multidimensional speaker, she addressed the women of color in the room about her own struggles as an activist and juggling her compassion toward potential allies with the rage and frustration of everyday racism.

It is easy to believe that American society’s preoccupation with racial, sexual, and gender identities is a new phase or something that began with the #MeToo Movement, George Floyd’s murder, the internet, or the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1955-56.

It would be simple to say that these ever-changing and complex buzzwords were swept in with the new generation, but that would be robbing thousands of people of their share in America’s story of Civil Rights.

Some of the earliest accounts of defiance against oppression and inequity began with the Great Narragansett War of 1675, and it lived on in the Stono Rebellion in 1739 and was carried on the backs of The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, and thousands more have contributed and died along the way.

 Audre Lorde summed up her feelings about carrying the weight of that journey on her shoulders with this:

Photo by jurien huggins on Unsplash

“My response to racism is anger. I have lived with that anger, ignoring it, feeding upon it, learning to use it... Once I did it in silence, afraid of the weight. My fear of anger taught me nothing. Your fear of that anger will teach you nothing, also.”

As 2023 continues, we will go through the rotation of various heritage and history months. It is normal for people of all racial identities and backgrounds to throw their heads back and groan: “do we have to? Why dredge it back up? It’s making things worse!”

That frustration is valid, but it does not lead to positive change.

It is also normal for people of all racial identities to feel anger. Anger about what is happening to themselves, their families, their communities, and their friends. This anger is not something to be ashamed of or suppressed. Maya Angelou once said that anyone who could stare racism in the face and not feel anger is “either a rock or unwell.”

Anger is valid too, and often does lead to actionable change, so long as we are angry together instead of angry at each other.

For a struggle that has been five centuries in the making, with progress not given but snatched through blood and murder and sacrifice, it is not going to get better until it ends. If you are feeling hopelessness or despair this Black History Month, know that you are not alone, nor the first generation to feel it.

A lot has been done thus far, and more will be done going forward.

We must continue to talk and struggle and guilt and anger our way through the sludge of injustice. Education and humility are the most non-violent and lasting ways to do this.

So, in honor of Olaudah Equiano, William Still, Mary Mcleod Bethune, and millions more, below are some of the issues following us into 2023- and thus opportunities to join this Civil Rights Movement five centuries old.

As the kids say, pick a struggle.

And then, end it.

Let’s Review

According to the National LGBTQ Taskforce, Black transgender people are more likely to live in extreme poverty, with 34% reporting a household income of less than $10,000 per year. This is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races, four times the general Black population rate, and eight times the general U.S. population rate.

A study conducted by Marian F. MacDorman found that Black women are 3.5 times more likely to die maternal deaths than white women. 

In 2019, Black women and girls made up more than 30% percent of women and girls reported missing in the U.S. while only constituting 15% of the U.S. female population.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that while African Americans make up only 13% of the general population, they account for 39% of people experiencing homelessness and more than 50% of homeless families with children.

In 2021, The Sentencing Project reported that Black Americans face incarceration in state prisons at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans.

The National Library of Medicine reports that stigma and racial trauma place African American youth at risk of developing PTSD: Nearly 65% of African American youth report traumatic experiences, compared to 30% of their peers from other ethnic groups.

In 2021, more than one-fifth of Black respondents were living with HIV. Placed next to the general U.S. population who experience HIV at 0.60%.  

To this day, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that Black Americans live four years less than White Americans.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, on average, Black women are paid 58% of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2020 for the same work.

It’s Your Turn Now

If these statistics filled you with confusion or disgust, that’s ok. These statistics are the reason why there is a continued need to educate and work toward racial equality.

There are, of course, other races with similar systematic adherences. But for Black history month, we shine a spotlight on the Black community in America, and, if you are blessed enough to be black, and you’re thinking well that’s not all there is to me. Of course, it isn’t.

In 1896, Frederick L. Hoffman wrote a book about the supposed “Negro Problem,” of America. He insisted that Black people were better off enslaved, and “on the downward grade toward gradual extinction.”

As it is plain to see, we are not extinct, and our numbers are rising.

In fact, between 2000 and 2019, the Black population rose by 29%.

Almost a quarter of all Black adults ages 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, and that number continues to rise.

Seventeen Nobel Prize recipients have been Black, twelve of which were Peace prizes.

Black scientists are responsible for the creation of the traffic light, light bulb, peanut butter, the snowmobile, and the original home security system.

For a race of people that, less than two centuries ago, were legally prohibited from reading, sitting at an all-white lunch counter, voting, leaving the plantation without permission, looking a white man in the eye, or being out of doors past dark, we deserve to take pride in ourselves.

Black history month is just as much about absorbing the ripples of dignity, defiance, strength, and integrity that have helped build one of the most powerful nations on Earth as it is about learning of our hardships.

If this month dredges us the full spectrum of anger and hurt that has haunted us since crossing the Atlantic, don’t suppress it. A suppressed anger is more likely to explode into violence.

Instead, pick your choice of inequities that still plague our country, and do what you can to chip away at it. Volunteer, donate time, educate others, advocate for better laws, ask questions.

Join other Americans in creating a truly perfect union.