In last week’s Monday Mission Update, I expressed a sense that we are at a reckoning point in our history of never honestly facing up to the consequences of the 400 year history of systemic racism towards African Americans in our country. A week of protests across the country, the vast majority of which have been peaceful and wonderfully diverse, started as an understandable spasm of grief, but they have evolved into something so much more. Additionally, polling taken over the past week indicates that for the first time on record, a majority of white Americans now believe “black Americans face risks when dealing with police that they do not,” and that “many whites say they understand where (African Americans’) anger is coming from,” according to Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
This time, perhaps, it’s possible that the vast majority of Americans are finally united in their resolve to tear down the barriers that have been constructed in our country that make it impossible to achieve real equality of opportunity and justice.
Michelle Williams, the dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health, notes that “racism is nothing short of a public health crisis. That reality is palpable not just in the scourge of police violence that disproportionately kills black Americans, but in the vestiges of slavery and segregation that have permeated the social determinants of health.”
At the Y, we have every intention of using this moment as a turning point for our work. In order to determine how best to do that, I am taking the time to listen and hear the perspectives and the pain of our Y associates, and in particular those of color. We will extend this conversation to our volunteers, members and the community at large. Listening and understanding are two of the most powerful acts in which we can engage in a civilized society.
Some of our senior Y leaders recently shared with me and other colleagues just a few of their experiences being black in America. The virulent racism and just plain ignorance they’ve faced, even in the past few weeks, is not just distressing, it’s immoral. As important as this conversation was, it was only a beginning. I am going to continue to listen, and we will use this moment of reckoning to commit to determining what the Y can tangibly do to undo barriers to equity in our organization and in the communities we serve. It will be difficult, but if there is anything the last eleven weeks have shown me, it's that when we band together as a Y community we are capable of more than we ever imagined.
All the best,
John
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland