Since my twenties, I’ve been arguing that black people need to hire a highly capable public relations agency to change the false perception of black people as lazy, violent, ignorant and inferior. Since middle school, I was a state identified “gifted” student however my mother still had to fight white school administrators to enroll me in the most rigorous academic courses at the predominately white high school I attended.
The Civil Rights Movement brought us inclusion in New Deal programs, voting rights, non-discrimination in government hiring and contracts and school integration. However, since integration the default for black children in public schools was enrollment in the lowest academic rigor or special education. As whites fled integrated schools and neighborhoods, by systemic design, black children were financially denied sufficient academic preparation for college. The schools in black communities lacked everything needed for black students to succeed. One of my heroes, author Jonathan Kozol, exposes the educational injustice in his books, “Savage Inequalities” (1991), “Amazing Grace” (1995″, and “The Shame of a Nation” (2005). His books lay the foundation for why the doors to educational opportunities needed to be opened. I think Mr. Kozol would agree that a highly intelligent child who is exceptionally driven will find a way to excel academically even if he or she is self-taught. I think there is also a story to tell about how black women became the most highly educated demographic in the country.
An expanded Affirmative Action opened the doors to women and minorities who were “qualified” to enter colleges and universities. The greatest beneficiaries were white women and Asians. Black girls like me whose mother was courageous enough to demand that I be educated alongside the smartest kids in my white high school, also benefited. However, the backlash against Affirmative Action didn’t take long, and the easiest targets to attack the policy was the admission of black people to college campuses. However, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continued to educate the greatest number of black students as the fight raged on for admission onto previously white campuses.
The white public had already been groomed for centuries to accept black intellectual inferiority as fact, and it was no secret that the K-12 schools they attended were inferior by systemic design, so it was easy to argue that Affirmative Action was “unfairly” giving less qualified black students enrollment preference over more qualified white students. This is why we needed a good PR agency to fight this false narrative about us. Some of the smartest, most innovative folks I know are black. And each of us has had to outperform our peers to gain entry and the respect we deserve. There has never been a benefit of the doubt given to us. Black pilots are better. Black surgeons are better. Black scientists are better. We have to be better because white fragility and envy put a target on our backs.
Since the end of slavery, we’ve allowed this country to define us primarily as athletes or artists or low-level workers. We’ve allowed this country to ignore. minimize or even hide our many intellectual, scientific and innovative contributions to the country. We’ve fought for this nation in every war. Our excellence, resilience, persistence, and strides forward were always met with the backlash fueled by a mixture of cognitive dissonance. fragile egos, and jealousy. White people burned down thriving black communities to punish and discourage our ambitions. White Americans expected humility and deference and always viewed black self-respect as arrogance. Many were hung from trees for this offense. Without a good PR Agency, the intelligence and dignity of the Obamas proved too much for many white Americans, and they instead turned to Donald Trump in cult-like loyalty to restore a false sense of white superiority. I believe that in their heart of hearts they know that Trump and his Administration are far less graceful, skillful, and intelligent than Obama and his Administration. And yet they proudly proclaim in front of cameras that Trump is the best president in history. They look stupid and that’s good PR.
Higher education’s response to the effective end of Affirmative Action by a conservative Supreme Court, was to recognize the importance of diversity in education. Unlike the general public, we knew that intelligence and creativity are spread across the human population without regard to skin color, ethnicity, or national origin. We knew that smart kids from underprivileged schools catch up quickly and excel when given the opportunity. We knew that harnessing the strongest brains made for the greatest human advancements. We knew and could document for the courts that the diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds enriched the learning environment for everyone. However, our greatest mistake is that we never bothered to hire a PR agency to sell this reality to the public. Instead, we allowed white men to complain when they had trouble competing with women and non-whites.
The same is true for equity. We dismantled the unfairness of cronyism wherein white men hired their friends and friends of friends instead of broadening their searches. That “old boys club” system kept the most qualified and best suited for positions out of the running. Equity is simple fairness. We started putting it in place without selling its merits to the general public.
The same was true for inclusion, where we decided it was time to make others feel comfortable in spaces previously preserved for white people. We decided it was advantageous to invite newly qualified people to be included at the highest levels of decision making. We decided that certain roles didn’t have to be held exclusively by white people. But we didn’t bother to make a PR case for inclusion. We allowed fragile whites to feel like they were being pushed aside for no reason. So, of course there was pushback.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion were great policies that never got the benefit that a competent public relations campaign could have provided. Instead, we allowed powerful fragile white men to tap into old stereotypes and a deeply ingrained false narrative about the capabilities of black people and later women. We allowed them to label DEI as a misguided policy that gave unearned favoritism to unqualified black people. We allowed DOGE to fire highly educated and experienced government workers, the highest percentage of whom were black women. We’ve allowed the Secretary of Defense to fire black and female generals and to refuse to promote blacks and women to higher positions in the military. The war on DEI turned out to be a war on actual merit.
But we can clearly see what has replaced DEI. A restoration of the previous system of cronyism was never about merit. It was never about what was best for the nation nor for humanity. It was always about the preservation of power and wealth among a small group of white men. And they ensure this by reinforcing the false American mindset of white superiority among the masses. But it’s not working.
The Trump cabinet is a picture of leadership in this nation without the benefit of DEI and a return to cronyism. I think social media has taken the place of the PR Agency I always wanted to hire. Social media exposes the history of this nation in ways the classroom has failed. It exposes the outrageous lies, the ridiculous policies, and the incompetent hires at the highest levels of government.
It may be late, but I think we’ve finally gotten the PR agency we desperately needed through social media influencers who are determined to expose everything. And I’m here for it!