In my community there’s a thought that is ever present: “You have to be twice as good to get half as much.”
This thought summarizes a reality that almost all black people understand. It’s a reality that we live every single day. And in the fight for equity and equality in America, we are constantly fighting against this reality.
The Declaration of Independence states – we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
For minority communities, this was a check written by the founding fathers.
But it has been returned for insufficient funds.
What is hard to accept is that although equity and equality are preached, minorities are not actually seen as equal. The American dream more closely resembles a nightmare for us. The stain of racism, prejudice, and discrimination has put equity and equality out of reach for us. We are looked at as outsiders. People in my community are referred to as “them or those people”.
I won’t pretend that I have the answers to all of these problems. I won’t pretend that I don’t love living in America the majority of the time. However, I can't say that America loves me as much as I love her. And as I looked at the world around me growing up, it was easy to see that as a minority, I was not afforded a second chance, while my white friends seemed to have endless opportunities to gain success.
So I learned that these things are all part of the minority handbook for living in America.
I learned the stain of racism is a white person’s issue to solve not a black person’s issues.
I learned that we do have to be committed to working twice as hard, despite the many challenges and issues we face.
Most of all, I learned to use my voice even when I would much rather use my fist.
Because using my voice will force the majority to acknowledge me on a level they have not acknowledged me before. They will have to deal with me in a way that forces them to grow outside of their narrow perspective of me. And it is this growth that will promote changes in the inequities and injustices that are still alive in this world around us.
Earl Callair