Can We Talk?

Can we talk diversity? College students in Texas, close your ears. I don't want you to break the law and get arrested.

 

You may have heard that Texas lawmakers passed a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices on state-funded college campuses. Now some folks are unsure if they can hold diversity discussions at all. 

 

I don't live in Texas - yet.  When I relocate there next year, I'll be sure to send the lawmakers a letter to let them know I'm coming and I will be holding free diversity classes at my house.  As I always say, you just can't allow others to stop you from doing sensible things. You have to grab that power back.

 

In the meantime, I want to discuss social media and the revenge culture. Check out this report on CNN:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/health/social-media-gun-violence-kff-health-news-partner/index.html

 

Now, it may appear from this story that youths in low-income and minority communities are focused on revenge. I have found that most want justice, but society has not given them the evidence they need to believe that the criminal justice system works for them. Thus, they deal with crimes and dispense justice on their own.

 

Let me explain. 

A few decades ago, I loaned $10,000 to a friend who told me he was opening a restaurant in a poor neighborhood Once the loan became due, he disappeared and I never got the money back. I found out he was a scam artist. There was no restaurant. He had scammed a lot of other people.

 

When I went to the Philadelphia police to report this scam, a bored and disinterested officer told me, "Well, you shouldn't have given him the money." (I would later share this story with police officers attending a law enforcement cultural competency workshop so some good did come from this situation. I wish you could have seen the looks on their faces. I was explaining why Blacks sometimes decide to take criminal matters into their own hands.)

I ended up getting a judgment against the scammer in court, and the defaulted loan was put on his credit report. I also found, as I investigated him, that he had been using his young daughter's social security number to take out loans he didn't repay. I reported my findings to federal authorities, but he never was arrested or went to jail. (Though I did get calls from people asking about my that judgment, which saved a few folks some pain and agony. 

My point is that a different standard of police service and civility exists in Black and White communities. If I lived in Lower Merion, and went to the police to report a scam, the police would never retort, "You shouldn't have given him the money."

 

We have to understand the lived experiences of others if we are to figure out what to do, and how to help.  We can do that, and grow, without ever mentioning the word diversity.