A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues. Steven S. Rogers

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Preface: Social Unrest, Protests, and the Podcasts

       Breonna Taylor Was Shot and Killed by Police in Her Own Home1

       (March 13, 2020)

       Ahmaud Arbery: Father and Son Charged with Murder of US Black Jogger2

       (February 23, 2020)

George Floyd's Death Was Murder ³

       (June 24, 2020)

      LISTED ABOVE ARE what I consider to be the three most descriptive newspaper headlines in 2020. Each captures the incidents that were the catalysts for the country's racial, social unrest, and protests, known collectively as the Black Lives Matter movement.

George Floyd was murdered by a cop who put his knee on George's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on May 25, 2020. Six days later, amidst the continuous protests and social unrest in the country, my youngest daughter, Ariel, 32 years old, sent me the following text:

      Dad,

      I think you should do a podcast as if you were the President. Something to provide a voice and some guidance to Black people right now regarding how to push forward. What to do with the emotion we all feel stuck with, to acknowledge that White people will likely disappointingly, try to keep going about the day today in a “business as usual” manner. We need you to keep encouraging us to respect COVID and its potential fatality. Equally important is that we need you to encourage Black folks to take care of ourselves which means:

      Dad, whatever your message would be, I know that it can be incredibly impactful!

      It is this heartfelt plea from Ariel, who is a former executive salesperson with a fintech company, with a degree in engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business, that led to my production of the podcast “Say It Loud! I'm Black and I'm Proud…and I'm Angry and Hurting” The targeted audience was Black Americans. Here is the podcast in its entirety:

       Say it loud, I'm Black, and I'm proud…. and I'm angry and I'm hurting!

      For those of you too young to know, the first 8 words that I just mentioned were from a song written by James Brown, 52 years ago, and the last sentence that I just mentioned was from my daughter, Ariel Rogers, two days ago. All of my previous podcasts have focused on Black businesses. This podcast will focus on the business of helping Black America after a month of Black murders by White men.

       I am not going to use this platform to tell Black people to vote, that I have heard advised by Black politicians and entertainers. I do not believe there is any value at this time to tell Black people to suppress their anger and hurt until the voting booths open in November. My advice is that Black people should be authentic and own these feelings. Continue to march and protest. You are going through the multi-step grieving process. Do not let anyone hoodwink you into trying to skip important steps in the process of grief when a Black man has been lynched by a White cop!

      My friends, I still hurt and grieve from hearing, as an 11-year-old, my mother crying in her bedroom: 52 years ago, when the news reported that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been murdered.

      I still hurt and grieve from attending a church service at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, 100 days after a White man murdered nine Black parishioners doing a prayer service meeting in 2015. And I still hurt and grieve from the photo I saw of a Black family, a father, a mother, and two children, lynched, hanging from a tree by their necks, when I visited the lynching museum last year in Montgomery, Alabama.

       Therefore, I come to you with shared anger and grief experiences. Own it. Do not let someone tell you that you're wrong for owning and displaying these natural feelings! In addition to that advice, let me give you some more constructive advice:

       In closing, be good to yourself. You are the descendants of strong Black men and women who survived the Middle Passage. This is our country, too. You are young, gifted, and Black. And as a result of your participation in marches and protests, when your slave ancestors ask you 50 years from now when you enter heaven, “What did you do for our people when you were free?” you want to be able to say, “I stood up and demanded from White America justice and humane treatment, as I proudly proclaimed, ‘Black Lives Matter!'”

      During this time, many Black people were so angry, frustrated, and exhausted that when their White friends asked, “What can I do to make racial matters better?” many Black people responded with exasperation, “Don't ask me how to help solve a problem that I didn't create! You figure it out!” This is a lost opportunity.

      While I completely understand the irritation that led to this answer, as a teacher for almost 25 years, I knew this was a teachable moment. It is with this objective of teaching that I created a second podcast, targeting a White audience.

      One of the highlights of that podcast includes the following statement:

      “How can I help?” is a perfect question for the circumstances that we presently face. It reminds me of a story mentioned in the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a book that Time magazine ranked as one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century. In 1960, Malcolm X was on a college tour giving speeches about the country's anti-Black practices and government policies. After one of his speeches, a young White woman approached him and asked, “What can I do?” Malcolm replied, “Nothing,” and walked away. He later said that his response was a major regret, that he should have used the occasion as a teachable moment that could have resulted in the young woman using her financial and other resources to help the Black community.

      This lesson that I learned from Malcolm X, about working with people who want to help the Black community, is the reason that I have written this book. My community needs your help.

Notes