Author: tonihall805@outlook.com

This is the final post in my series addressing recent Supreme Court decisions. Just over a year ago, the Court overturned Roe sending abortion rights issues back to the states and thereby causing many women in red states to lose their right to access abortion care. This decision will affect the lives of women, men, children, and society.

Before we get into how we can respond to this ruling, I want to correct some misinformation that “pro-life” advocates have been spreading for years. I watched a few Congressional hearings on the topic that featured experienced OBGYNs. These experts were eager to address the lies circulating about abortion. OBGYNs emphatically asserted that late term abortions are rare, tragic, and medically necessary to save the life of the mother. No woman comes in at 38 weeks and requests an abortion because she has changed her mind! OBGYNs corrected the false narrative during these hearings that abortions are being performed on a fetus after birth. OBGYNs had to explain that by definition it isn’t possible to abort someone who is born and that killing a newborn is murder, not abortion and that we have laws that strictly prohibit murder. It was sad to watch medical professionals have to debunk the most outrageous claims about women’s healthcare. It was evident that many of the lawmakers were ignorant about the workings of the female body and completely unaware of the medical risks associated with pregnancy.

Comprehensive healthcare for women is complicated and necessary. Pregnancy is a serious undertaking. This is why I strongly believe in the use of birth control to prevent unplanned pregnancies whenever possible. In fact, in 1978, I was fitted for a diaphragm shortly before I got married and was confident that it would keep me from getting pregnant. Used with spermicide, it was said to be 95% effective. And it probably would have been effective if had I used it consistently before my first child. It worked perfectly between my second and third child. Here’s the story.

In my youth, my period was like clockwork, so I incorrectly assumed I could get away with not using the diaphragm for at least two weeks prior to my period. My Catholic friends used the rhythm method and so I thought there was something to it. I was wrong. A stubborn female sperm remained alive long enough to fertilize the egg I eventually released. After six visits to the doctor for nausea and my insistence that I couldn’t possibly be pregnant, the doctor finally suggested that I just take a pregnancy test anyway. I was shocked, but also happy about the news that I was pregnant. I was healthy, newly married, my husband had a great job, and we could certainly make this adjustment to our lives a little sooner than expected. I had an easy pregnancy, a long but natural delivery, and a very quick recovery. Both the baby and I were healthy the entire time. I was lucky.

Not all women are as fortunate as I was to A) have the ability to emotionally adjust to an unplanned pregnancy; B) to have a support system in place to care for me and a baby; C) to carry a healthy fetus to term without medical complications; and D) to have the financial resources required for prenatal, delivery, and post-natal care. If just one of these factors is missing, an abortion may be is a reasonable option for a woman.

Some people believe that abortion is murder at different points in a pregnancy. There are those who believe that conception is that point. Others believe it is somewhere between 8 and 20 weeks. Others believe it is at the point of viability, around 24 weeks. And still others believe it is at birth. Personally, I believe it is at the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb after being born. As I’ve explained in previous posts, I believe the human soul enters the body with the first breath as when God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he then became a living soul.

I think of the womb as a place of formation of the human body. It’s the formation of the house that a person may eventually live in. Many of these “houses” do not form correctly and are spontaneously aborted. Other times, a woman is unable to safely carry fetus to viability. There can be many medical reasons for this problem. We call these miscarriages, but they are technically aborted pregnancies. At times, doctors detect major medical problems in the forming fetus and recommend an abortion. The problem is that anti-abortion laws rarely consider the many things that can and do go wrong in a pregnancy that can endanger the life of the pregnant woman or will cause the unnecessary trauma of a doomed birth. I think that forcing a woman to give birth to a fetus without a skull and a fully formed brain because it has a heartbeat is cruel.

The consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to return abortion rights to the states is that poor women in red states who lack the ability to travel and are often without medical insurance will be giving birth. Prenatal care, delivery, and post-natal care are not inexpensive. And should there be any medical complications, the situation will be deadly. We can already foresee that black female mortality rates will only get worse in the post-Roe era in red states, increasing the rates of suicide, botched abortions, and maternal mortality. The number of black children born into poverty will rise along with the number of children born addicted to drugs or with major medical problems. It is evident that red states who have rejected Medicaid extension will face the greatest problems stemming from a rise in unplanned births. As OBGYNs flee red states in fear and frustration, even wealthy women with medical insurance will experience greater maternal hardships.

In the short term, the answer is expanded use of birth control, early pregnancy tests, and medication abortion. Women groups are already setting up funds to help poor women travel to get the care they need. I’m glad the FDA approved the sale of over-the-counter birth control pills, eliminating the need for a doctor’s visit and a prescription. This will benefit teenage girls and poor women, enabling them to prevent most unplanned pregnancies. We must all teach and encourage the young women among us to use birth control now more than ever. Pushing abstinence onto young people only increases unplanned pregnancies because abstinence ideals lead to unpreparedness when temptation strikes and eventually wins.

In the long term, we absolutely must join forces to vote for lawmakers at the state and federal levels who are sensitive to the healthcare needs of women, who listen to medical doctors, and who recognize that religious beliefs about when life begins and what constitutes actual murder of the unborn should remain an individual matter of conscience and not public policy. Simply put, if a woman believes abortion is murder, she shouldn’t have one.

In part one I addressed the Supreme Court decision that ended Affirmative Action. In part two I addressed their decision against student loan debt forgiveness. This week I address their unprecedented and dangerous decision to allow blatant discrimination against the LGBTQ community in public commerce on the basis of protecting free speech based on religious beliefs.

Putting aside my doubts as to whether actual standing existed in the case where this Supreme Court upheld a Colorado woman’s right to deny her (hypothetical) website creation services to same-sex couples should she decide to open a business based on her freedom of speech and her religious beliefs, I believe the ruling was wrong in that it promotes discrimination in the public sphere. It wasn’t too long ago that signs were posted in windows denying service to “colored” people. It probably goes without saying that I wouldn’t want to patronize a business that didn’t want to serve me anyway. Their service would not only suck but could even be harmful to me. I wouldn’t trust the cake of a baker who hated me or “my kind” nor would I hire someone who objected to my views to create a website on my behalf. In fact, no one asked for a same-sex wedding cake (last year’s case) and no one asked for a same-sex website to be built. Both plaintiffs before the Court only feared that such a request might be in their future. The truth is that there are plenty of other businesses who welcome the patronage of same-sex couples, and I’m pretty certain many of us would prefer to patronage a business that welcomes our business.

Legalizing discrimination against members of any particular group based on bigotry cloaked in speech based on religious belief degrades that religion and harms society by condoning the differential treatment of certain people. Too many so called “Christians” misread Jesus’ mandate to “love thy neighbor as thyself” to be “hate thy neighbors who are different from you”. And the Supreme Court wrongly agreed that discrimination based on unsupported religious beliefs and freedom of speech is allowed. First, it would have been nice if they had required that designer to point to a specific Christian teaching that prevented her from serving same-sex couples. I have never seen a teaching in the New Testament that calls upon Christians to deny services to gay or any other group of people. If anything, Jesus made it a point to meet with and serve with the societal outcasts of his day. And second, I wonder if the Court considered that the content and design on the website would rely solely on the input provided by the same-sex couple. So, is it really the website designer’s speech? I guess the objection is that her business would be forced to parrot content she opposes in exchange for payment. But couldn’t she post a disclaimer that the views expressed on this website are solely that of the client? It appears to me that the conservative judges bent over backwards to condone discrimination in public commerce.

So, given the decision of this current Supreme Court, how should decent people who want to reside in an inclusive community respond to a business owner who decides to discriminate against particular members of our families, friend groups, community, and human race? My response is to boycott that business. Should signs go up on websites or in store fronts to advertise their discrimination, I will take my business elsewhere and certainly let them know why. I will inform my circle of friends and family about the discrimination and ask them to do business elsewhere as well. And most importantly, I will follow the lead of my LGBTQ family and friends when they inform me of businesses who discriminate against them.

White “Christian” nationalists have taken over the Republican Party and have infiltrated too many churches with a brand of Christianity that is in direct opposition to the actual teachings of Christ. They have successfully infiltrated our Supreme Court and are now represented on school boards, state legislatures, governorships, and in Congress. If we are not careful, one might again become the next president.

The time is now to push back on their agenda to “make America great again” which is code for turning back the clock to when white heterosexual men held all the power, extended human rights only to themselves, hoarded all the opportunities to succeed, legalized discrimination, and exploited the labor of women and people of color to further enrich themselves. If nothing is done, I foresee a return to those days.

What was true in Hitler’s Germany remains true today. Apathy, distraction, and threats of violence are tools of the fascist. And so, the reality is that silence remains a form of consent. Patronizing discriminating businesses enables more discrimination. And neglecting to vote is further empowers the oppressor. At this moment in time, we have the collective power to protect our country and the civil liberties we have gained for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community.

The question is whether or not we have the courage and the will to resist. I will not go along to get along. As a patriot, I am willing to die on this hill to protect and defend this country and to preserve the hard-won freedoms of the people I love.

The Supreme Court decided against allowing President Biden’s student debt forgiveness program to proceed. While the program is not a perfect strategy to end the student loan debt crisis, the program would have provided some relief to students, many of whom are poor and disproportionately African American females. The program did nothing to address the predatory profit-seeking student loan program. Student loans today are far different from the student loans I secured when I was going to college.

I’m among the baby boomers who fully paid off my student loan debt. The terms of my undergraduate student loan debt mandated that it would be paid off in ten years and it was. It was straight principal and interest, and the interest rate was low compared to the market rate. It was exactly like a car loan. My consolidated student loan at the graduate level for both my master’s and doctorate were also straight principal and interest that started at 4.5% and was reduced to 3.25% after 24 consecutive payments. It much took longer than ten years to pay off that $70,000, but I did it without missing a payment and by paying more than the minimum payment. Well into my repayment, I learned that working for a non-profit for at least 10 years qualified some borrowers for loan debt forgiveness and so I applied, only to learn that my loans weren’t the type of government loans eligible for the forgiveness program. To this day, I don’t understand it, and no one could quite explain it, but I shrugged my shoulders and continued to pay my off my loans until they were fully paid. I’m thankful for the extremely low interest rate, consistent employment, a decent salary, and a modest lifestyle that allowed me to pay off my student loan debt.

My eldest daughter attended an expensive private university and incurred a substantial amount of student debt. It was her dream school that offered her a great education, social connections, and leadership skills. That education served her well. Thankfully, she secured a six-figure income and quickly paid off her loan. My son secured a full-ride athletic scholarship and graduated in four years completely debt free. This made it possible for him to volunteer for the Peace Corps and return to secure a high paying career. But things were different for my middle daughter. She worked to pay her tuition and fees at a state university, and I paid out of pocket for her room and board. However, due to her illness, at one point she took out a $6000 student loan. I was shocked at the 8% interest rate but was certain she could manage a mere $6000 once she returned to work, thinking it was like a car loan. However, that wasn’t the case at all.

If you’ve read my blog, you know that my middle daughter struggles with bipolar disorder and so she seldom has a straight line between her objective and her goal line. She graduated in five years despite her mental health challenges that included occasional hospitalizations. Eventually, her mental health challenges interfered with her jobs post college. Regrettably, I wasn’t paying attention to her student loan. I later learned that her loan behaved more like a credit card than my straightforward principal and interest payment student loan. Despite her consistent minimum payments, the balance grew. When she took a necessary deferral due to unemployment because of her illness, the interest continued to accrue. Eventually circumstances forced me to pay attention to her financial situation and that was when I discovered that the $6000 student loan had ballooned to a $26,000 debt. I was shocked.!

I was also furious, not at her, but at the new student lending laws that allow banks and the government itself to saddle students with predatory loans to fund their education. The student loans today are like credit cards where the minimum payment doesn’t cover the full principal and interest to pay down the loan. My daughter had been making monthly payments, only for the loan to grow bigger and bigger every month. And because of her situation, she was unable to pay more than that. These loans are worse than credit card debt because our government doesn’t allow for bankruptcy relief of student loan debt.

I decided to take over her loan and pay it off. What I discovered is that even when I began to make payments considerably higher than the required minimum, the principal wasn’t moving much but next statement due date would move further out. The monthly interest that was accruing remained high despite the extra payments. What I learned from a phone call to the company was that I had to specifically specify in writing that any amount over the minimum payment must be applied to the principal. Talk about predatory lending! I was glad to finally get that debt paid.

But that experience made me realize that the problem with the student loan crisis for many students today is not that they don’t want to pay their student loans, but that they are locked into a system that entraps them into a never-ending cycle of credit card-like debt under the guise of a student loan. While 8% is less than a credit card interest rate, with the increasingly higher loan principals needed to fund higher education these days, the payments can be debilitating for a person just out of college. So, because of the nature of the student loans today, I am in favor of Biden’s one-time forgiveness of $10,000 or $20,000 in loan debt to make up for the how students are being ripped off. It’s regrettable that the Supreme Court decided against it. As previously mentioned, the largest proportion of debtors are black women and students from poor families. This is yet another blow to people in the most vulnerable positions among us.

But more important than forgiving some student debt, I believe our government should return to low simple interest and principal repayment plans and stop exploiting students with debt that behaves like a credit card. As a country, it is in our best collective interest to encourage education and not to exploit our youth by saddling them with predatory loans. Deferrals for medical reasons or unemployment should halt the interest accrual. In addition, government Pell grants for low-income students should be much higher. State and federal government scholarships for low- and middle-income high achieving students should be substantial enough to fund public college or trade schools. No undergraduate student should graduate from college owing more than it costs to purchase a car or to make a down payment on a house. In the end, this hurts our economy while curtailing the social and financial progress of young people.

Getting an education beyond high school is necessary for most people to achieve financial success, whether that be a trade or college. It remains a wise investment that will pay off in higher wages and a greater earning potential over a lifetime. However, I also believe that under the current government policies that allows for predatory student loans, becoming saddled with unnecessary student loan debt is to be avoided. There are steps that can be taken to avoid student loan debt.

First, is to be an exemplary intellect or an exemplary athlete who earns a full scholarship through the school, community scholarships, and corporate and private scholarships. I once had a very smart student from Chicago who applied for every scholarship she could find, even those that she didn’t think applied to her. She had more money to fund her entire four years at our expensive private college than she needed. To motivate my children, I remember telling them that their grades and extra-curricular activities equated to dollars when they applied to college. While each of them received various scholarships, only one received a full ride.

Second is about choosing the right school. The most economical choice absent a full scholarship or trust fund is a local community college. A student can fund two years of community college for university transfer or education for a trade on a part-time job. In some places, students can take community college courses while still in high school for free. I’ve had several students enter my university as juniors right after high school graduation. A few entered as sophomores because of AP courses for which they earned college credit. In addition, community scholarships and Pell grants are available to community college applicants. Community colleges also offer remedial courses that many students from low performing K-12 schools need to prepare them for college coursework. This strategy would help eliminate the exceptionally high university dropout rate among under-prepared students. Tragically, many of the dropouts leave the university saddled with student debt and no degree to show for it.

For those seeking a four-year degree, doing well in those first few years of community college could mean a much lower student load burden (if any) at a more prestigious four-year college as a transfer student. Students and parents forget that the degree on the diploma will show the school from which the student graduated, not their path to get there.

Choosing the right four-year college is important too. State colleges tend to be less expensive and concentrate on supplying an educated workforce for the state. I believe that people going into careers like k-12 teaching, business, social work, and public service work are best served by the less expensive state colleges. People interested in academic research, law, medicine, and teaching at the University level are best served by a slightly more expensive state research institution. However, there are private research one institutions as well that are even more expensive. And those interested in high level leadership roles as professionals generally covet competitive spots at the most expensive and highly prestigious private universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Lesser-known private universities do well at pre-professional preparation, offering small classes and personalized attention. They also have a leadership component attached to their mission and are feeders into the more prestigious public and private graduate schools. Students will pay a premium to attend these four-year private colleges and universities.

And finally, funding college should be considered a family affair with the goal of avoiding student debt. Of course, wealthy parents often pay for their children’s education outright, selecting the most prestigious private colleges and universities. Their children are able to graduate debt free while having obtained an education, social connections, and leadership skills. For the majority of Americans, it will take parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles as well as the students themselves joining together to pay for college if they want to graduate debt free.

Here’s some advice. Absent generational wealth, people should begin saving for college as well as retirement as soon as that first job. High school students who hold part-time jobs should save for college or trade school, not for cars, fancy vacations, or clothes. These days, investment companies make it easy to set up 529 college saving plans. Make saving automatic to avoid the temptation to spend the money and then watch it grow. With high interest rates today, high yield savings accounts are paying up to 5%, making it a good time to save. You can comparison shop at NerdWallet.com or Bankrate.com to find a high yield savings account.

I’m hopeful that President Biden will find a way to get around the Supreme Court decision and forgive some of the student loan burden on these unwitting students. But I’m even more hopeful that each reader will join me in petitioning President Biden and lawmakers via email or letter to encourage an end to the predatory lending practices that created the debt crisis in the first place.

June has become a tough month in the life of our nation since it is the month when our Supreme Court releases their decisions on the constitutional questions before the court. Their decisions rarely satisfy everyone, and their decisions don’t always stand the test of time either. Last year, the Supreme Court ended the right of women to reproductive health care or abortion. This week, the Supreme Court furthered showed that it cares little about the real-life challenges facing poor people of color and members of the LGBTQ community in favor of a Republican ideology that privileges religious freedom, the wealthy, and a mythical bootstrap individualism.

Although it’s disheartening to have judges make decisions that ignore the harm their decisions inflict upon people who already suffer tremendous harm by ongoing racism, discrimination, and homophobia, I am a person who always looks to make lemonade when provided with lemons. There is lemonade to be made from these nasty decisions regarding Affirmative Action, the student loan forgiveness program, the denial of service to LGBTQ customers by expressive businesses and abortion. In my next four posts, I will address each of these decisions and possible steps to mitigate the damage. I’ll start with Affirmative Action.

It is undeniable that Affirmative Action opened doors that were previously closed to women and people of color despite their qualifications. I personally benefited from Affirmative Action. There were others like me who were lucky enough to be “qualified” to walk through those previously closed doors and we have become successful enough to ensure that our children are themselves “qualified” to enter college or the workforce without the need for special preferences. Except for a few white supremacists, society itself has become more accepting of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This was the reality for my three college educated children and it was also the reality of the Obama daughters and numerous others. However, the vast majority of black and brown Americans are still not qualified to enter those doors in the same way that a few blacks and most white women and Asians were when Affirmative Action was first introduced.

The good news is that even with the removal of Affirmative Action, colleges and businesses are still holding those doors are open because they recognize the benefit of diversity. I find it encouraging that they are actively seeking alternative ways to continue to recruit women and people of color without specifically addressing race. Many will use an impoverished background as a good proxy for race and as sad as it sounds, that will work because this nation has successfully used legalized discrimination, unethical government policies, and violence to keep black and brown people in poverty.

In addition, this ruling has highlighted the unfairness of longstanding Affirmative Action on behalf of the children of the wealthy, famous, and alums, especially at elite colleges. That should become a target of litigation under the same equal protection clause. I wish those Asian students had attacked that unfair practice instead of targeting the black and brown students. But they didn’t because the ugly truth is that they want to attend Ivy League schools because the proximity to wealth and power those wealthy and well-connected students represent, increases their likelihood of socioeconomic success. The wealthy donate buildings and scholarship money, lend name recognition to the school, and boost the prestige of the school. That’s the reality that perpetuates this unfairness and makes black and brown students’ defenseless scapegoats.

I find it deplorable that many poor and middle-class students are often told that it doesn’t matter which college they attend when the reality is that the most elite colleges in the country feed the highest ranks of our government, law firms, and corporations. I believe the objective of this Supreme Court decision was to make it more difficult for black and brown citizens to gain future access to wealth and power at the highest levels. I predict that white supremacists will increase their attacks on Jewish and Asian students as they overwhelm Harvard, Yale, and Princeton like they have the UC system in California.

The fight will be over the spot at those most elite schools because there are more than enough colleges and universities to accommodate everyone. In fact, most colleges are competing to attract students. In their quest to attract a diverse class of students, they already began seeking alternative routes to maintain access to their campuses. In recent years many colleges have eliminated those worthless college entrance exam requirements that favored students from highly resourced and academically rigorous high schools. Poor students (mostly black and brown), locked into underfunded and academically inferior schools were at a disadvantage. The SAT and ACT are more highly predictive of a student’s socioeconomic status than of actual ability and so they are rightly being disregarded. Grades and actual high school course offerings are also being more closely scrutinized since some students have access to multiple advanced placement courses while others do not. Colleges are looking for high grades and for students who took advantage of the rigor they were offered as an indication of academic curiosity that indicates greater potential for success. Activities and experiences beyond the classroom as well as high school teacher recommendations are becoming more important than ever. Also important is the student essay and interview. The best and brightest are not necessarily those with the highest SAT score and GPA. It will be interesting to see how the Ivy League moves forward in the next few years as students compete for access. My hope is that black and brown students continue to seek access as well.

My advice to parents and grandparents and extended family raising children today is to invest in their children’s education from day one. This not only means saving money for higher education (college or trade school), but it means ensuring each child is attending a fully resourced K-12 school. The current reality is that our states are failing our inner-city schools. So, for many this will mean moving into a neighborhood that has good public schools. For others, it means investing in a good private school. A fortunate few may win the lottery to send their kids to a high performing charter school. Each family must do what is necessary to accomplish it because a solid K-12 education will determine each child’s socioeconomic trajectory. But the responsibility doesn’t end with saving money and enrollment in the right school.

Parents or a designated family member must monitor homework and academic progress and be ready to advocate for each child’s placement in the most rigorous academic level he or she can handle. Of course, access to tutors, books, and technology is a must. Let’s acknowledge that not every child is going to be college material. But every child must learn the basics of reading, math, science, history, and civics to succeed in life. Technical or trade school is a must if college isn’t in your child’s future. Beyond the classroom, each child should be involved in extracurricular activities whether that is sports, art, music, scouting, science, technology, gardening, activism, drama, or dance. The preschool and elementary years should be spent exploring options and middle school through high school should be spent on a passion that fuels active participation and proficiency. Colleges and employers will be looking for well-rounded, highly proficient, and emotionally grounded candidates.

When I grew up, education was a family affair with my grandparents along with aunts and uncles pitching in to help my parents educate us. Everyone asked about my grades. My family helped me fund educational opportunities for my children. And now I’ve made it a point to help my children raise highly qualified children. It’s within our ability as a united family to prepare all the children in our family well enough that there will be no need for Affirmative Action and the racial preferences it once provided.

In part two, I suggested three things African Americans can do to help repair ourselves. They included active civic engagement, financial literacy to build generational wealth, and education in service to a fulfilling career. The remaining four suggestions are presented here.

We all know that white Americans and many immigrants often boast about how their family came to the United States with nothing but were able to pull themselves up by their “bootstraps” to improve the lives of subsequent generations through hard work. This is truly “the land of opportunity”, they will say with pride. Having that life experience and mindset, many are quick to point to African Americans and wonder what is wrong with those people? Why do they remain at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder? They’ll say slavery ended a long time ago, so their lack of success must be caused by their cultural deficiencies or perhaps their inferior DNA. They ask themselves why these people wallow in the past and keep claiming victimhood?

Either they are unaware, or they conveniently sidestep the years of Jim Crowe, the unfettered terror of violence, real estate redlining, racism, prejudice, detrimental government policies, and desperate treatment in employment, media coverage, housing, healthcare, education, banking, and the criminal justice system. They ignore the reality that whole communities and powerful individuals, often in backroom decision-making where no one is looking, curtailed our progress and ruined our collective reputation. Even though the law demands fairness and equal treatment, time after time, fairness and equal treatment have been elusive when it comes to African Americans. However, many Americans are mostly unaware of the mistreatment of their fellow Americans. I’ve had many white students express shock and dismay when they are presented with the economic and social disparities linked to discrimination, racism, and governmental policies. Many of these unsuspecting Americans will point to the small handful of black people who overcame both the visible and invisible obstacles to become successful as proof that the system is in fact equal, fair and just.

That was the great mind trip I faced as a teenager. There was the stated promise of fairness and equal treatment, but the reality I repeatedly encountered was so different. What I came to realize at an early age when I discovered the difference in school resources offered to white children and denied to children of color, was that I had to persist anyway. I learned that I had to find a window when a door was closed. I had to run while others could walk. I had to develop the courage, a strategy, and the tact to defend my integrity, my intelligence, my abilities, and my work. I recall the time when a white female PhD student at USC encouraged me to confront a white male English professor to insist that my paper deserved an “A” and not the “B” he gave it. After reading my paper, she was adamant that I confront him, and she told me how to approach the situation. Without any protest, the professor gave me the “A”. Until then I had been accustomed to being short-changed and I had accepted that I needed to be undeniably superior to get what others were given.

Experience taught me that I couldn’t be as good, I had to be better and that even then, I could be viewed as a threat to insecure people. For many years, I bore emotional blows with a smile. I saw betrayal up close and personal. However, I chose my fights carefully and won a few, but lost even more. It seemed like there were potential fights everywhere. I could have protested many times but didn’t like the time when I was the first in line for a sample at Costco, but the older white lady server literally moved my hand away to first serve the white woman behind me. I let it slide because I was happy to allow everyone around me to observe this woman’s blatant racist behavior. However, I should have, but didn’t protest in 1978 when an apartment manager informed us newlyweds when we arrived for our appointment to see an available apartment that it was already rented. We called again and found out that it wasn’t. We were young and decided that we could find another apartment. I’ve always felt guilty and ashamed by our short-sighted behavior that day. If that happened today, I would report it. And since that incident, I have called out discriminatory practices whenever I encounter them.

So, my fourth piece of advice for African Americans is to protect our mental health by picking our fights carefully. Walking away from a fight is emotionally draining, but actual fights are even more emotionally draining. However, some fights are definitely worth having. I eventually decided to fight whenever I saw discrimination and whenever a situation threatened my children’s health and education or to defend my wallet and my reputation. I have and I’m in favor of sitting down with a mental health professional to unpack the trauma that practically every African American endures. Some of it is generational and some is connected to specific events, and even more is from the accumulation of daily indignities we suffer at the hands of the media, unwitting associates, and people we barely know. We internalize the message that we aren’t valued when the media highlights the one missing blonde girl, but completely ignores the many black girls who go missing, are trafficked and murdered. It is traumatizing to see young black men murdered by other young black men or the police. It is traumatizing to have government leaders belittle black history and villainize Black Lives Matter. We like to think we are strong, but even the most resilient among us, can benefit from counseling. I know I have benefited greatly from it.

For many years, I’ve said that black people in this country need to hire a public relations firm to enhance our collective image. I wish we would pool our resources and do it! Too many people continue to harbor a largely negative image of black people. We are viewed as highly emotional, prone to violence, overly loud, wildly colorful, overly sexual, uneducated, poor and lazy, but athletic people who can sing and dance. We’re good for a laugh and a roll in the hay but seen as a threat when we want to be taken seriously. It would be great if one of our few multi-millionaires hired that public relations firm to remind folks that we are simply human beings with as varied a skill set and mindset as any other individual human beings. But unless that happens, each of us is a public relations statement for the entire race.

One might think that black women hired such a firm. Since Oprah and a few others, we have come to be viewed as these invincible creatures who don’t feel pain, can handle all manner of physical and emotional abuse, are loud and intimidating, full of wisdom, and possess some kind of “black girl magic”. However, this false narrative hides some disturbing facts we must address. For starters, although we are the most highly educated group, we are still paid only 64 cents for every one dollar earned by white males. In addition, we have the highest abortion rates among any ethnic group and the highest maternal mortality rates, dying from pregnancy complications nearly three times more often than white women. The loss of Roe will hit black women the hardest, especially since 45 percent of black women under the age of 55 live in red states with limited or no access to abortion. These same women continue to have limited access to birth control and pre-natal healthcare. A disaster is at our doorstep, so we need to push to change this situation immediately or many of our sisters will die and many more black babies will be born into dire circumstances. Each of us must act as a public relations firm within our circle of influence to highlight our challenges and to suggest solutions so that we can work to change things.

My sixth piece of advice is to move away from living in predominately black neighborhoods to residing in integrated neighborhoods. Separate has never been equal! We need a second migration that takes us to communities that offer healthier water and air, better schools, access to healthcare, better job and business opportunities, improved shopping at better prices, and safer communities. When poor black people cluster together, it’s easier for the government to withhold resources and further marginalize people. But if we start spreading out across the nation instead of clustering in small pockets, we have a much better chance of thriving. It is only in communities of color that armed guards are found in the stores. It is only in communities of color that there are liquor stores instead of grocery stores and banks on every corner. It is only in communities of color that you have to wait multiple hours to vote. It is only in communities of color that there are bars on the windows. It is only in communities of color that schools are under-resourced.

While there are a few challenges to living as a minority in other parts of town, those challenges are far fewer than living in an impoverished, over-policed, and under-resourced community. I know this from experience. The benefits far outweigh the costs. If I had to choose where to raise my family all over again, I’d convince my brother and his family to move with us so that their lives could have been easier. The few black families in our neighborhood quickly found each other and we supported each other throughout the years. The best thing about the choice was the opportunity to build equity in our house while the kids obtained a solid K-12 education. The second-best thing was the sustained opportunity to expose people to an actual black family so they could see beyond the media’s negative portrayal of African Americans.

I admit to having to gently challenge the occasional, “I don’t consider you black” or “You’re so articulate?” or “Your kids are so well behaved.” I admit to having to be an advocate for my kids on several occasions when white teachers wanted to automatically track them into lower levels. However, I didn’t need a gifted certification to get the job done like my mother needed for me. That’s progress. And we enjoyed the security of a neighborhood free from the threat of gang violence, police brutality, and burglary. My kids ran a candy store out of our garage that was profitable. They were popular in school, and I always reminded them that being a fly in the buttermilk makes you extra visible, so use that to your advantage not your disadvantage.

My final piece of advice to African Americans is to support, even fund, other African Americans who are trying to educate themselves, start businesses, and are fighting to uplift the values of liberty, justice, and equality through their creativity, talents, protests, entrepreneurial endeavors, and political leadership.

No one is coming to rescue us or to repair the damage that has been done. But with determination, a few smart moves, and mutual support, I truly believe we can repair ourselves.

I doubt we will ever receive the reparations we deserve. So, I don’t think it is wise to for us to wait for any kind of national rescue plan. We’ve been battered, bruised, bullied, and broken by a history of slavery, discrimination, and racism. But we’re still here and it’s time for us to repair our broken parts by ourselves. I’d like to offer my humble prescriptions for repair and restoration.

As African Americans, I believe that we are living in a time of both challenge and opportunity. The forces set against the progress of anyone who is not white, male, heterosexual, and Christian (at least in name) are emboldened by politicians backed by a few wealthy donors. They have seized control of the Supreme Court, numerous state houses, some school boards, police departments, and their goal is to re-gain the presidency. And now the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Affirmative Action just as it overturned a woman’s right to an abortion. These same people who make laws and policies that negatively affect the lives of the poor, transgender youth, and people of color are the same people who now clothe themselves in color blindness and who love to quote sections of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech while constantly reminding us that they are the Party of Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves. However, their actual actions present a threatening challenge. But I am not entirely disheartened because I recognize that the progress we’ve made thus far continues to offer a window of opportunity. With some thought, effort, and a change of mindset, we can make current policies and programs work in our favor and not against us. In this post and the next, I will lay out the seven things I believe we can do individually and collectively to ensure our forward progress toward securing the American ideal in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

The first thing we must absolutely do is understand how our government functions and then become engaged as petitioners, voters, and perhaps elected officials. Not everyone wants to run for public office, but each of must understand the beliefs and values of those who do before supporting any candidacy and voting for anyone. In today’s political climate, we must give as much attention to the election of school board members as we do to presidential candidates. Just as important as voting is the exercising of our right to petition leaders to meet our needs by contacting them directly and/or participating in peaceful protests when necessary. Exercising our right to vote and to petition our government are fundamental to securing our civil liberties, protecting our lives, and improving our justice system. No one should be in doubt that these rights are currently under attack by white Christian nationalists.

The second thing we can do is get our money situation right. In a capitalistic society that depends on the exploitation of cheap labor and gullible consumers to maximize profits, it is imperative that we cease being the cheap labor and become smart consumers. Forget the notion of “keeping up with the Jones” and instead imitate the example of the financially independent. For starters, we’ll do better if we adopt the habit of saving and investing rather than spending on things that perish quickly and add little value to our lives. It is self-destructive to spend money on products that harm us. So, let’s stop doing that. It’s a good idea to adopt the mindset that it is far better to be paid interest than to pay interest. I haven’t run a balance on a credit card for over 20 years, yet each year I collect cash rewards from each of my credit cards. I do direct deposit or maintain a minimum balance to enjoy free checking accounts. When I must buy something, I support black businesses whenever possible or shop within my city boundaries, so the sales tax dollars benefit my city. If monthly bills exceed monthly income, then either reduce living expenses or find another revenue stream. I learned long ago that small actions like bringing my lunch to work and making my own coffee provided a hefty amount of monthly savings that I could invest. There is a scripture that my mother taught us early in life that says, “A wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends everything he makes” (Proverbs 21:20).

I also like what Suze Orman says about clothes and jewelry, but I heard her advice too late. I’ve learned that dressing professionally has a positive psychological impact on both the wearer, customers, and on colleagues. So, I viewed my professional wardrobe as a necessary investment and spared no expense on dressing professionally. It really is true that people who are well dressed are treated better and taken more seriously. However, according to Suze, you really only need one high quality pair of earrings. It is better money management to invest in a few classic but high-quality clothes and shoes that will last than to follow the fashion trends. Admittedly, I failed in this area. While I did stick to the classics, I accumulated far more clothes and jewelry than I needed to the point that I was shocked when I retired and donated my professional wardrobe. I’m embarrassed to admit how much money I wasted over the years.

And finally, when it comes to money, purchasing insurance for the purpose of hedging against financial ruin due to health issues, untimely death, accidents, and natural disaster is a wise financial decision. I view insurance as an investment in financial security. The number one cause of bankruptcy in this country is high medical bills. How many times do you hear of families starting a GoFundMe page to pay for medical bills or to bury a loved one? Far too often. Medical insurance is a necessity. Car insurance is required if you drive a vehicle. Additionally, every financial advisor I’ve ever consulted advised me to purchase term life insurance because it was an affordable way to ensure the continued financial stability of surviving family members. The younger you are when you purchase it, the cheaper it is. And home insurance has twice saved us thousands of dollars from flood damage from a broken pipe and once from wind damage when an entire fence came crashing down. When I was working, I had personal liability insurance since I was advising students on issues that could impact their lives and needed protection in case I was ever sued. Let’s get our financial situation in order, starting with a good paying job, savings and investments, wise spending habits, and adequate insurance.

The third thing to do involves a commitment to hard work. If we’re going to work hard, demand a fair wage for that work. But the kind of work people do matters. Drug dealers work hard, but that job is both destructive and dangerous and will likely end with incarceration or death. I believe that humans need purposeful work to maintain a healthy self-esteem as well as to provide funds for living. No legitimate job is without dignity; however, some jobs are designed to exploit the uneducated, unskilled, and undocumented. The time has come for us to encourage each other to choose career paths that are legal, safe, fulfilling, secure, and jobs that pay us well enough to live without government assistance.

And that starts with ensuring that our children and grandchildren obtain the necessary education, whether through college or trade school. Although college is a worthwhile investment, it can be achieved without accumulating massive amounts of student debt. Two years of community college for a trade or as a prerequisite to transferring to a four-year university is affordable and selecting a state university over a private one is typically more economical unless scholarships are substantial. Student loans should be avoided whenever possible. However, if a student load exists, it should be repaid without delay as interest continues to accrue during every deferral. Some people end up owing 2-5 times more than they borrowed because of this. It is far better to work a part-time job than to take out a student loan.

As previously mentioned, Affirmative Action is likely to end. It was useful in that it opened the door for those few fortunate souls among us who were prepared to enter. And those doors remain open to everyone. I’ve been saying for a long time that we need to take this new opportunity to better prepare ourselves. I even had a non-profit called “Reachable Heights” that conducted workshops for black parents on how to prepare their children for higher education. Now, more than ever, it is our responsibility to fully prepare our children to compete for admission to the trades and colleges to which we were once denied entrance based on our skin color. Since racial exclusion is no longer the case, our community must join with parents to raise the expectation of academic excellence from our schools and our children. We should cease to rely on government policies and programs for preferential admission treatment because we allowed our primary schools to fail us. We are capable of gaining entrance based on merit if we put forth the effort. The time has come for us to make the necessary investment in our K-12 schools and for us to improve our children’s attitude toward academic achievement. I know from experience that the lack of school resources doesn’t determine academic achievement, but the high expectations and commitment on the part of parents does. Parents and the community must support and push currently failing schools and our own children to move toward academic excellence.

These first three things: civil engagement, financial literacy, and hard work coupled with the pursuit of educational excellence are my first prescriptions to begin repairing ourselves. In my next post, I’ll present the remaining four things that we can do to repair ourselves without waiting for reparations that may never come.

In my previous post I wrote about reparations to heal a nation. I explained in great detail why they are owed, to whom they are owed, and how I’d like to see them distributed. I printed out my post and sent a copy to President Biden, my House and Senate representatives, and the majority and minority leaders of both the House and Senate. I even sent a copy to Governor DeSantis. I fully understand that actual reparations as I described may be impossible, however, I feel a duty to offer solutions and to exercise my right to petition our government. Because reparations may never come, I want to address how we as African Americans can once again work to repair ourselves.

After slavery, we did our best to repair, restore and rebuild our battered lives. We were denied the forty acres and a mule, but we forged a way forward anyway. America did not invite us to join the “melting pot”, so we were forced into segregation, the lowest paying jobs and the worse sections of town. In 1916, we began moving north and west seeking jobs, leaving Jim Crow, and escaping racial violence. By the 1970s, 47% of us had fled the South. We established our own communities, our own businesses, our own schools, and our own churches and mosques. In the South, we had a little assistance from land grants to set up our own colleges and universities. We established social and political organizations to strengthen our communities and fight for our Constitutional rights. But we soon learned that much of what we built for ourselves or gained politically was subjected to a backlash from the white supremacists in the country. In fact, during the 1920s, the KKK boasted a membership of 4-5 million members across the country. The pockets of individual and community prosperity were targeted by jealous white folks and nefarious government intervention that allowed lynchings, broad discrimination, and land theft. Whole communities were targeted and destroyed.

Imagine trying your best to climb a ladder and having someone constantly pulling you down or worse, burning the ladder beneath your feet. That is what happened. And I think African Americans collectively lost some faith that the “American Dream” was even attainable. While some wallowed in despair, others chose to quietly strategize, and still others chose to fight publicly for access to that “Dream”. I recognize now that my family in general were the quiet strategy folks who kept their heads down and quietly prepared to enter every door of opportunity through education, hard work, and undeniable competence. Although they were quiet, they supported the civil rights movement and were shocked by its sudden end. I recall an extended time of confusion shortly after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Eventually, that confusion led me to have a serious conversation with my mother when I was a teenager. I challenged her conviction that I could do or become anything I wanted. Despite the new civil right laws, even at that young age, I could sense the contradiction between her words and the forces that were clearly against black progress. Thankfully, she was able to convince me to continue to strive for excellence and progress. She quoted scriptures like, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” and “A man’s gift will make room for him and bring him before kings”. I engraved those scriptures upon my heart and used her high expectations and constant words of encouragement as fuel to strive in school and in life despite the obstacles that sometimes exposed themselves.

I think it was helpful to spend my childhood surrounded by people from a variety of different cultures. In previous posts, I shared the life-lessons I gained from my encounter with other cultures. I believe those lessons served as a buffer against the internalized oppression many black people adopted. For example, I recall accusations like “acting white” being hurled at black students who tried to excel in school. I escaped that by attending school with academically competitive Asian students during a crucial time of my development. But that whole “acting white” nonsense greeted me at the black middle school I decided to attend. However, I was able to counter it by starting a club titled, “Get it Together”. I worked hard to convince my peers that excellence itself was a worthy pursuit.

America sent black students to poorly resourced schools but short-sighted voices within our own community were able to convince too many of us that to care about school was a white thing to be rejected. In fairness to them, perhaps they remained traumatized by those burned ladders and wanted to protect us from disappointment. But the truth is that a black child had to be emotionally strong enough to withstand that kind of pressure. Even the adults in our black church weren’t too keen on pursuing too much education. I recall the pastor of our church taking my teenage brother aside and trying to convince him to pursue the ministry rather than college as this was a safe and prosperous career choice. After that conversation, my brother rejected the church altogether and went to college. My mother, in her wisdom, left the black church and began attending a predominately white church in the San Fernando Valley where pursuing a higher education was encouraged.

The negative attitude toward education, especially among the most impoverished black people is a self-inflicted wound that contributes to a lack of mentors and role models in poor black communities. My husband talks about the unemployed black men he encountered on the streets in Baltimore who freely shared their uneducated worldly advice. He says he was on a path to nowhere good when he was drafted for Vietnam. He credits his six years in the Air Force for saving him from following in their footsteps.

For most of my childhood, society only encouraged black men to pursue trade jobs, music, the ministry and eventually sports. Businessmen, academics, and professionals were viewed as “uppity negros” often subjected to ridicule by blacks and whites alike. My father was one of those “uppity negros” who was a professional limited to work solely within the black community. I think his fraternal organization was of some comfort to him but the pressures he faced were immense. Although, he never complained about his struggles, he drank heavily and eventually died from his alcoholism.

There were so many frustrated black men like my father. It didn’t help that the federal government enacted anti-family policies, sanctioned the sale of illicit drugs in the black community, nor that we had more liquor stores than grocery stores in our communities. When any group of people are put under constant stress, discrimination, mistreatment, duress and subjected to pollutants in the water and air, there is bound to be a mental health crisis within that community. Hopeless and desperate people behave in desperate ways whether that be violence or an escape through drugs and alcohol. And the police were there to arrest, and judges were there to incarcerate those who acted out. In 2010 one third of black males had felony records.

But if I could point to one bright spot, I would have to point at liberal Hollywood producers who decided to show a different side of black life. I recall watching the show, “Julia” about a loving single black nurse raising her son. Then there was the “Jeffersons” about a successful black business owner and his family. And then there was “The Cosby Show” that for the first time depicted the family life of black professionals. These shows went a long way toward changing the image of black people, not only among white people, but among black people. “The Cosby Show” and subsequent shows like the “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” represented the prospect for a culture shift.

I’ll end my post here because it is getting long. However, in my next post, I’ll continue to address the opportunity to repair our lives without reparation before dark forces close the doors and it is too late.

Let’s begin with the basic definition of reparation. When one party has harmed another, it’s healthy for both parties if the perpetrator acknowledges and apologizes for the harm inflicted and to then offer to somehow repair the damage inflicted upon the harmed party. That’s the meaning of reparation. It’s to acknowledge and make amends, allowing for healing and restoration. The U.S. has paid reparations to native Americans, former slave owners, and Japanese Americans. However, African Americans had their promise of 40 acres and a mule revoked soon after President Lincoln was assassinated. The issue of reparations is once again a topic of discussion.

In the United States, it is impossible to deny that African Americans who are the descendants of slaves have suffered tremendous harm throughout the history of this nation. Some people (like me) believe African Americans are owed something for the 243 years of legalized slavery followed by Jim Crow segregation and legalized discrimination in addition to targeted oppression and destruction of Black lives and livelihoods in almost every sector of American life. At its inception 65% of African Americans were locked out of receiving Social Security benefits as farm workers and domestics and African American veterans were denied GI benefits that subsidized college and housing after WWII. At every turn, U.S. policies denied African Americans the right to equitable pursuits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is no wonder that African Americans today have one tenth the net worth of their white counterparts. Even college educated blacks earn less on average than white persons with only a high school diploma.

There are those who argue that nothing is owed because they were not personally responsible for slavery since they were not alive and had nothing to do with the systemic racism that continues to harm black people in general and African Americans in particular. Some even contend that systemic racism is a myth that should be banished from our vocabulary.

I will address those people later. But for the purpose of reparations, I make a distinction between black people and African Americans. “Black people” is an all-encompassing term for people with black heritage while African American refers specially to black people who are the descendants of United States slaves. I make the distinction because of a divergent history of trauma and harm suffered at the hands of the American government and its citizens. Many black immigrants were not subjected to the pre-civil rights era trauma caused by legalized terror, blatant discrimination, and ridicule heaped upon African Americans. However, it cannot be denied that their black skin today subjects them to lingering systemic racism, covert discrimination and physical danger. For this reason, I contend that all black people in this nation are “owed” reparations, with the greatest amount to be reserved for African Americans.

Some would say that the U.S. has already paid reparations in the form of Affirmative Action. And to some extent, I would agree. Affirmative Action certainly opened the door to opportunities that had been previously closed. However, one requirement of Affirmative Action is that the candidate for college admission or a certain job has to meet the “qualifications” to be given preferential treatment for selection. Only a few African Americans who could actually meet the qualifications because they lacked access to the academic rigor, mentorships, and experiences necessary to gain those requisite qualifications. It is often argued that the greatest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action were white women and Asian Americans.

In previous posts, I detailed my personal journey through K-12 and how academic expectations and opportunities in this country are distributed along economic, ethnic, and racial lines. As author Jonathan Kozol reports, children in low-income areas are offered considerably fewer academic resources than others and absent parental advocacy and participation in those schools, the children receive an inferior education. The top 10% of those students may “qualify” for college admission when grades are given priority over SAT scores, but many of them will struggle to catch up academically and socially during their first years of college.

Not surprisingly, the very vocal opposers of Affirmative Action call it “reverse discrimination” citing the struggle of these students as a failure of Affirmative Action and a disservice to the students, most of whom are black or brown and poor. These short-sighted naysayers will argue that Affirmative Action weakens workforce competency and dumbs down higher education by including these sub-par individuals into spaces they really don’t belong. In reality, the actual failure is the systemic racism that denies these workers and students access to the living conditions, K-12 education and experiences that would adequately prepare them for well-paid jobs and college coursework. I know this from my own career in education.

In my experience, most of these college students will make it to graduation if they receive adequate moral and financial support and if they are willing to spend extra hours studying. They won’t have the highest grades at graduation because of their initial struggle, but they will eventually catch up and thrive. For example, I mentored a black male student who wanted to become a doctor. He was a top student athlete at his urban high school and was admitted to our university as a biochemistry major because he was pre-med. I recall his dismay when he first encountered the periodic table and realized that all his classmates were already more than familiar with it, having had the opportunity at their high schools to take chemistry and even AP chemistry courses. His high school didn’t offer chemistry and he had never been in a lab. This student quit the football team to concentrate on catching up. Today he is a physicians’ assistant. The opponents of Affirmative Action are decrying the access points but ignoring the possible upward mobility of people who are given opportunities because of it. Most will thrive in their jobs and classrooms when given the opportunity along with accompanying support.

Affirmative Action was reparations for people like me, who because of my family situation and my mother’s advocacy were able to take advantage of it. For me, it was an open door that I was prepared to enter. Other people like my student, who despite the failures of his K-12 education was able to show enough promise and to study hard enough to overcome the hurdles that poverty and an inferior K-12 education placed before him. However, Affirmative Action does very little for most African Americans because the vast majority lack the fortitude or funds to persist in college or worse, they lack the opportunity to gain the necessary qualifications for admission. Affirmative Action alone is nowhere near adequate reparations for African Americans.

Instead, I am advocating for reparations in the form of a substantial investment in predominantly black pre-K-12 schools. These schools need everything from highly qualified teachers, state of the art school facilities, and school resources comparable to schools in high property tax areas. Second, I would offer paid college or trade school tuition and books to every African American student. And I would forgive the student loan debt of those earning less than $75,000 per year. Third, I would offer interest free government loans to black business owners to establish and expand businesses within predominately black communities as well as subsidies to major retailers to open much needed shopping centers in black communities that lack them. Fourth, I would offer a $40,000 cash payment to African Americans above the age of fifty with a bonus of $20,000 payable to the children or grandchildren of WWII veterans who were denied GI Bill benefits; a $30,000 cash payment to African Americans from age 41 to 50; a $20,000 cash payment to African Americans from age 20 to 40; and a $1,000 cash payment up to $20,000 for black Americans who have lived in the U.S. for each year of citizenship up to 20 years. Fifth, reparations must be made to former prison inmates who were either over-sentenced or wrongly accused. Those who served out their sentences should have their voting rights restored. Those who were exonerated should be compensated at a rate of $50,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment and provided free job training or college tuition and fees. And those whose sentences are deemed to be excessive compared to non-black inmates for similar crimes should have their sentences reduced and if the excess time has already been served, they should be compensated for their extra years of incarceration at a rate of $40,000 per year, payable to survivors if the situation warrants. And finally, sixth, every African American living today should receive free healthcare as reparation for government sanctioned environmental toxins, illicit drug infestation, and a history of inhumane medical experimentation on African American bodies.

As a reasonable person, I dismiss the argument that nothing is owed. The fact is that every white person in this country benefited from the mistreatment of African Americans in one way or another. Even though white Americans living today were not personally responsible for the original sin of slavery nor the terrorism, discrimination, systemic inequality and bigotry that followed it, it should be evident that a great portion of the infrastructure, medical breakthroughs, generational wealth, and social status they enjoy today can be attributed to it. Reparations is the right thing to do. It will make amends for the damage this nation has done to the lives and livelihoods of blacks and African Americans in its quest to build wealth and dominate on the world stage. And most certainly, reparations will help improve our collective lives as it will ultimately address our mental health crisis along with the poverty and the crime that plague this nation.

Instead of hiding from our history (because it makes people uncomfortable), we should acknowledge the wrongs of the past and make amends so that we can heal and prosper together. Reparations is a way forward toward healing and unity of an entire nation, with truth as the path toward freedom and release from the chains that bind us to our past failures. It would be a better lesson for our children to learn that the nation hurt African American people, but it apologized and made amends by repairing the damage.

When I look in the mirror, I see more than my milk chocolate skin color. I see the joys and traumas, the victories and defeats, and the pride and challenges of my life and the lives of generations that preceded me. I also see a woman with an easy smile, a heart full of love and compassion, empathy, creativity, and far too many worries. I see a woman who struggles with weight, hypertension, bad eyesight, and kidney disease. I see a mother and grandmother who is passionate about making the lives of the next generation better than her own. I see a human being who is concerned that mankind continues to fail black people and worse, that black people too often continue to fail ourselves. I see a woman who is tired but determined.

I learned early on that people and governments will disappoint me and that the only person I can rely on is myself. But at times, even I disappoint myself. I know as well as anyone that emotions often get in the way of doing what is good, right, and best for myself. For example, how many times have I sought comfort inside a bowl of potato chips? Too many times. However, I still consider myself one of the lucky ones.

Despite my shortcomings, I managed to get a good education, survive childbirth, retire from a good career, be happily married, be financially well off, and to live long enough to see my grandchildren. I didn’t need to be perfect to achieve this, just good enough and lucky enough to escape a few traps, dodge a few bullets, and circumvent a few pitfalls strategically laid to ensnare African Americans.

It’s disheartening to know that seventy percent of African Americans households are making less than $75,000 per year and are therefore not living as well as most Americans. According to Pew, 40% of African American households earn less than $30,000 per year. And having a household net worth over 1 million dollars puts me in the top 2% of black families while 20% of us live below the poverty level lets me know outside forces are actively at work. I fully recognize that a large part of my success can be attributed to pure luck (since God is no respecter of persons), but another part can be attributed to an alternative mindset I adopted, abandoning some aspects of black culture. I weaved together these desperate cultural attributes from my multicultural experience growing up and formed new habits that served me well. That’s what I want to talk about first.

I learned from my church friends to love God, to love others, to forgive, to walk humbly, to do justice, to be generous, and that faith without works is dead. From my alcoholic father, I learned to avoid alcohol and mind-altering substances, but I also learned the virtues of hard work, entrepreneurial endeavors, and to only buy property where the property values will rise. I learned from my mother that the pursuit of personal interests and talents was a worthwhile financial investment and to insist upon opportunities to prove the naysayers wrong. I learned from my Asian friends that competition can drive personal achievement upwards, and that competence has real world value. I learned from white people to value time and the efficient use of it and to watch my back. I learned from my Jewish friends to be frugal and to invest money and that investing is far better than spending. I learned from my Latino friends to value family relationships. I learned from my AKA sorority sisters that Black Girl Magic is real and that I’m not alone in wanting to improve black communities. I learned from my black friends and family to lean into color, creativity, and confidence. I learned from my international students that culture is a powerful driving force in human behavior, but that aspects of a culture can be rejected, revised, and eventually changed. Watching their transformation gave me hope.

As I was introduced to attributes from other cultures, I questioned some of the black cultural cues I absorbed growing up. For example, prior to attending school with a lot of Asians, high grades were easy to achieve because expectations were low, and the academic rigor was even lower. It was at the Asian elementary school that I came to understand that too much time spent playing sports, dancing, and listening to music jeopardized my academic achievement. Admittedly, my favorite past time before going to that school was watching television, listening to music, singing in the church choir, learning the newest dances, and playing sports. But I didn’t want to look stupid among my new classmates, so I had to change how I was spending my time. I wanted to compete academically, so I eventually spent less time singing, dancing, watching television and playing sports and a lot more time reading and studying. Surprisingly, I found that I enjoyed the acquisition of knowledge. I loved learning and the reward of high grades. I never abandoned the fun things, but they were no longer my biggest priority. However, among black family and friends, I became a lot less hip. I was known for (and not really appreciated) for my school smarts.

I learned from my father that home values increase more rapidly in white neighborhoods and that the free public schools are as good as the private schools in poor neighborhoods, so that is where we purchased homes. Since the fourth grade, I’ve only lived in white neighborhoods, and I think experiencing white culture (including being banned from the white neighborhood school) has helped me appreciate the vibrancy of black creativity and cuisine while also learning to navigate white spaces while fully understanding my “outsider” status.

Other encounters eventually shaped other aspects of my life as well. Spending time with my Jewish friends taught me that building wealth came from spending as little as possible on worthwhile products and investing as much as possible. Eventually, my investment growth outpaced my monthly income from my job. Latino encounters taught me to accept and enjoy the diversity of personalities within my family, to invest in family members, and not to cut ties with family members so easily. Growing up, I saw how easily ties were cut among black family and friends for offenses that went unforgiven. I saw jealously instead of financial investment in each other’s ideas. Beyond my family’s unique culture of investing in each other’s endeavors, I saw that pooling resources was like pulling teeth because there was too little trust in each other. I often asked my black college students if they could ask extended family to help them study abroad or pay for books and they said, “no”. The first time I studied abroad, the funds came from multiple extended family members. My mother helped me start a business and purchase my first house. I in turn helped my children with their endeavors and they in turn are willing and able to invest in each other without hesitation.

My point is that although African Americans in this country face very real problems with systemic racism, a few aspects of our culture work against our progress as a people. For example, our emphasis on sports and entertainment above academics, especially among our young males limits our educational and job prospects. Our obsession with fancy hair, fancy cars and expensive trendy clothes hampers our ability to purchase property and invest in the market. And finally, our lack of trust and loyalty to each other and the insane willingness to step on each other and even kill each other to preserve face or to get ahead is destroying us from within and ruining our collective reputation. I can say from the experience of my extended family that living in a black neighborhood is more dangerous, more expensive, less healthy, and more oppressive than living as a black family among whites. These are aspects of our culture that are within our power to change. However, other issues are harder to address.

For example, we are more prone to hypertension because of our genetics. Slave traders licked the faces of potential slaves to select the saltiest prospects because they were more likely to survive the middle passage. Those are the ancestors of most African Americans and account for our higher incidence of hypertension. However, our limited access to healthy foods, exposure to toxins, and inadequate healthcare have a lot to do with our poor health outcomes as well.

I have little faith in the government to improve our situation. In fact, Republican leaders are moving towards making things worse for us across the spectrum, including the removal of our historic contributions to this nation. In red states in the South where most of us reside (56%) the rollback of abortion rights will most negatively affect black women. We already have the highest abortion rates, but we also have the highest maternal mortality rates. Black women are three times more likely to die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth than white women. And of those born, the challenges they will face are enormous. But we are not helpless against these forces.

I advise my African American brothers and sisters to do the following: 1) Value, support and maintain relationships with each other by quickly forgiving forgivable trespasses; 2) Support leaders who uplift us by contributing to their campaigns and voting; 3) Stop wasting money and start saving and investing; 4) Move, eat better, avoid substances, and exercise; 5) Prioritize education in academic or trades; 6) Use birth control; 7) Work hard and seek promotion and better pay; 8) Know and understand your detractors; 9) Contribute to the community; 10) Keep the faith while doing the work.

People without boots have a difficult time pulling themselves up by them. I suggest we start putting on the boots we can find in our schools, among successful family members, and inside the few social programs remaining. And with a little luck and a few cultural tweaks, we can then start pulling ourselves up.

When it comes down to it, any able-bodied human in their right mind would choose to leave home if the living conditions were unbearable. The migrants at our Southern border made a choice that we ourselves would likely make if our circumstances at home were as dire as theirs. We all need a safe place to live. We all need shelter and enough to eat. We all want an opportunity to work and advance in this life.

Humans have been migrating since the beginning of mankind for a variety of reasons. First, there are survival reasons like the need to flee 1) the violence of war or gangs, 2) starvation from draught, famine or inflation, 3) natural disasters, 4) a lack of jobs or opportunity, 5) racial, religious, or political persecution. Then there are those, like my ancestors, who were forced to migrate for the exploitation of their labor. And finally, there are a few fortunate people who migrate by choice. These adventurous folks usually have enough wealth, social status, education, or talent that puts them ahead of the line for immigration in most countries. They aren’t the subject of our current immigration debate and in truth, borders mean very little to them because they are welcomed everywhere.

The romantic narrative of the U.S. is that we are a nation of immigrants. But in reality, we are a nation that tries hard to ignore the land theft and genocide of the indigenous people who already lived here, the enslavement of black people, and the exclusion of non-white and non-Christian people from fair immigration policies. We have never been a welcoming nation to immigrants from everywhere, despite the words engraved on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore”.

It’s inaccurate to say that our immigration system is broken. Certainly, it is under-funded. However, the disfunction is working as it was intended. Our system has always been designed to severely limit the legal entry of poor people of color. Lawmakers keep illegal immigration in place so that cheap labor remains available because taxes are being collected from them, labor complaints are few, and most social benefits can be denied. One could argue that the need for cheap labor drives the continuous under-funding public schools in poor areas.

Let’s face it, the U.S. economy has always thrived on cheap labor. Post-slavery and post-civil rights, our government leaders silently welcomed the able-bodied and highly ambitious people of color who illegally crossed our borders. They wrestled jobs away from poor blacks with their cheaper labor and fewer complaints about working conditions. Our government allowed drug trafficking because the drugs were primarily limited to poor black and brown communities while boosting the economy of our Southern neighbors and providing a reason to imprison a large population of poor people of color, ensuring they couldn’t vote and would be forever doomed as cheap labor. The situation was manageable and suited its intended purposes just fine.

But things changed when white folks started demanding greater quantities of drugs and started dying from them. Interesting, but not at all surprising how drug addiction stopped being criminal and became a public health issue as soon as a growing number of whites were affected. With money to be made, other countries entered the drug supply chain and conditions South of the border deteriorated to the extent that people started doing what desperate people do. They leave their homes in order to survive.

The Statue of Liberty seems like an open invitation, and they are coming. However, the white nationalists don’t want them here in numbers beyond their ability to exploit their cheap labor. They fail to see all humans as fully human with value and so their empathy level is as low as ever. To their core, they believe the lie that white skin is somehow superior and more deserving of life and opportunity in this nation. They forgot that their ancestors were migrants, too, who fled all kinds of disasters or came seeking opportunity. What makes them better than the migrants showing up at our Southern border any different from those who showed up at Ellis Island? Nothing except the color of their skin. And Republican leaders rely on their bigotry to force their true agenda.

Remember when they convinced their constituents to be afraid of Muslim terrorists and their “Sharia Law” taking over our government? Then they introduced fear of Asians whom they blame for bringing Covid-19. These days, they stoke fears of being overrun by brown immigrants, fleeing violence and poverty. Trump and his MAGA news outlets successfully convinced his followers that those southern migrants were to be feared as rapists and drug traffickers coming to kill them and take over the nation. He later said the quiet part out loud when he said he preferred people from white nations to immigrate and not those from “shit hole” countries. Funny, but that has always been the case. Think of how easily this country turned on a dime on behalf of Ukraine migrants.

I spent my career in higher education working in the segment of our immigration system that deals with foreign students coming to the U.S. and sometimes staying beyond their degree to work, marry, and become U.S. permanent residents and then citizens. Those with a lot of money would literally buy themselves a green card by setting up a business. Those with coveted degrees in science and technology would work themselves into eventual citizenship. Those who married a U.S. citizen for actual love got to stay provided they married a citizen with enough money. The students who came here from around the world are generally among the wealthiest and most privileged in their home country. The poorest rarely find their way here to study but when they do come, it takes a tremendous amount of effort to sustain them. Preference was always given to the wealthy.

I look at our immigration system and I realize that Congress has little to no will to improve upon a system that lets in just enough poor desperate people to provide cheap labor to industries that need it. A small amount will be legally admitted, but most will be undocumented and that is by design. Congress has the authority to drastically increase the number of guest workers allowed into the country, but it refuses because wages and working conditions will have to improve and prices will increase. These improvements will impact industries like agriculture, meat processing, hospitality, construction, and garment making. These are jobs Americans typically no longer want to do. And DeSantis in Florida is finding that out.

That said, what’s happening in Florida scares me. DeSantis knows that certain industries need cheap labor and forcing undocumented immigrants to leave his state has created a crisis that he will need to address. My fear is that he has just opened the door for him to exploit the labor of prisoners as the 13th Amendment allows. Most of the prison population in this country are black and brown people. Sound familiar? I’m curious to see if he goes the route of legalized slavery. It would not surprise me as crops rot in the fields and construction halts.

Other red states who are anti-immigrant are lowering the child labor standards to fill their need for cheap labor. Their obvious targets are the children from poor areas with failing schools and few opportunities. Without an education, these children will become part of the permanent cheap labor force and so will the children they will be forced to give birth to.

You see, lawmakers know that the anti-abortion laws don’t affect wealthy women who can afford contraception and easily obtain an abortion by traveling. But it does force the poorest women among us to give birth. The white children can be adopted, but we all know that black and brown babies are far less desirable among those who can afford to adopt. They will be raised by poor mothers or become wards of the state. Pro-life Republican leaders are really about providing industry with homegrown cheap labor to exploit while simultaneously closing our borders to drugs and brown people.

As long as white people keep thinking they are superior and Americans keep demanding illicit drugs and the rest of us insist on buying cheap goods and services provided by exploited cheap labor whether from undocumented immigrants, homegrown cheap labor, or perhaps a return to slave labor, absolutely nothing will change in our economic system that thrives on human labor exploitation.