Every now and then an experience causes a great shift in the way you think. The day I found myself snatching my newborn back protectively when a white lady reached out to touch him was my day of revelation. I was living in the north for the first time, having been hired after college to help integrate the professional ranks of General Motors. This automatic move to a mode of protection toward this unknown white lady surprised me. That day exposed the residue of a childhood lived under racial inequality and violence under the Jim Crow system that required by law every white person to discriminate against every black person, whether or not they were racist. This residue had made it as natural as breathing air to first see (and sometimes only see) what you thought a person’s race represented BEFORE you saw the person. Having witnessed many acts of meanness by white women toward African American children, I was conditioned to suspect what was actually an act of kindness.   

 

This propensity to view the value of individuals through the lens of race and class—was this just a problem mostly associated with blacks and whites in my age group or is it still a problem? After all, the whole point of the Jim Crow system was to deny people of African descent access to education, commerce, capital, and voting in order to use their resulting failures as justification for their “differentness”.


I thought a lot about pre-judgment last year when my son and a group of young African American adults were treated inappropriately at a restaurant where they had met for a going away meal. It was a gospel singing group that included ministers, school teachers, a software developer, a doctoral candidate, and several business owners. When their group picture came out with a national news story, commenters made all sorts of negative judgments—judgments about their moral standards, their economic and educational levels, drinking habits, habits of their race—all based on a picture without facts about the people.



The automatic negative evaluation of people who appear different seems to be growing each year, fueled by images and stories and software that serve up more of what we already think rather than exposing us to new facts that would challenge our biases.

Just as I came to understand, automatic response systems do not turn themselves off. They require deliberate effort. When meeting or seeing someone economically, racially, or gender different, etc., we have to train ourselves to check our automatic systems by immediately asking “What did I just think about that person and why?” When we examine our thoughts, we begin the process of allowing people to be who they are rather than allowing our automatic response system to assign a value to them.  

Conscious thinking stops us from putting so much valuation on the container that we fail to see the contents and it stops us from putting people in the box of our experiences. Unconsciously, we choose to judge, embrace, demonize, accept, or reject people. Every day we box people in or set them free, without a consciousness of the basis of our judgments.

 

Today I challenge you to make the pledge to start the practice of thinking about what you just thought and become the one who creates a ripple effect in a world full of unchecked thinking. It is the first step in reducing division and it can turn this country from a self-destructive path. 
 

 

 

Dr. Patricia Bath, Ophthalmologist
Inventor of laser medical treatment to remove cataracts from the eye

 

Dr. Betty Harris, Chemist
Extensive work in the area of explosives

Developed a spot test for which she holds the patent for identifying explosives in a field environment

Developed safing fluids for explosives spilled

Native of Monroe, LA 




Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, Physicist
Conducted breakthrough basic scientific research that enabled others to invent the portable fax, touch tone telephone, solar cells, fiber optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call waiting.

First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT.

Currently president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological research university in the United States, and recently ranked by as one of the nation's top 50 universities.



Valerie Thomas, Physicist
Lead the team that created the camera for the first satellite to send images from outer space (Landsat).

Holds the patent for the illusion transmitter, a product that NASA continues to use today.

Project manager for the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN) that became a major part of NASA’s science networking and today's Internet.


 

 

River Reads Summer Reading Selection by Ouachita (Monroe, LA) Parish Libraries 2008
Chronicling almost 100 years of southern history
Connecting the past with the present
Wisdom and practical application of history to everyday life

Comments from Readers Like You
 

 
 

 

 

Looking for someone with real life experiences for your upcoming event or for your 50 Year Voting Rights Act commemoration?  Now taking bookings.  
 

 

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Cleo Scott Brown, author of Witness to the Truth, speaks nationally on race relations, black history, and voting rights, helping audiences connect the past with the present. She has also lived her subject, and like her father, who is the central figure in her book, she believes that her experiences have been for a greater purpose. Learn more about Cleo here.