This op-ed appeared in the Virginian-Pilot on Sunday, February 14, 2010.
I’VE BEEN thinking about the subject of race in an ideal society, a world where we talk about race without making everything about race. It’s something I long for, something I once thought was not only possible but just around the corner. I’m no longer sure that is the case.
I grew up in a completely integrated society. I never attended all-black schools, and I never lived in all-black neighborhoods. It was instilled in me at an early age that I could be whatever I wanted to be. There were no barriers — as long as I did well in school and took advantage of the opportunities. I truly believed that for a long time and couldn’t understand why folks my age thought differently. That all changed when I left the government to work in the private sector.
At 25, I came face to face with racism and how deeply imbedded in our society it is.
I will never forget the look of shock on the face of one interviewer at one of Norfolk’s largest private employers when I was being interviewed for the No. 2 accounting job in that company, an interview I had garnered on the strength of my resume as well as a phone call. He finally blurted out a question: How well did I work with white males?
I will never forget the partner in the then-13th largest CPA firm in the world telling me that he believed I could make partner, but that I’d work twice as hard to get there.
So much for that levelplaying-field idea.
Until then, I believed that, as my generation came of age, the old vestiges of racism would fall away. I learned a new term — institutional racism — and its effects on our society’s ability to leave the past in the past.
I began to see that the token black person doesn’t open the door for others; he or she remains the token, only to be replaced by another token. Those who have the power are willing to share only if forced.
So much of racism and prejudice — the two terms are not interchangeable: racism requires power, while prejudice does not — is not even intentional. When a person gets hired, for example, the natural instinct is to go with the one with whom you feel most comfortable, the result being hiring somebody who looks like you.
Working for myself full time for 23 years, I’ve learned that prejudice isn’t one-sided. On occasion I’ve had white people who, upon discovering I’m black, take their business elsewhere. Far more common is the internalized oppression in black clients. Without realizing it, they see blacks (and themselves) as inferior, and nearly every one who leaves me does so for a white CPA.
Parents unconsciously teach their children racism and prejudice, and our society reinforces it. No matter how open-minded one is about race, because it is a part of our fabric, most people succumb to its realities. Norfolk, for example, has a rule that its appointed boards — except the School Board — must reflect the racial makeup of the City Council. My father, a minister, used to say that 11 on Sunday morning was the most segregated hour of any day. For the most part, that remains the case. Outside of work, how many of us socialize with members of another race?
I’m tired of seeing black politicians take advantage of black folk because it’s easy. I’m tired of white politicians taking advantage of blacks in general. I’m tired of seeing natural groups — the poor, for example — pitted against each other simply because of race, a point made by Leonard Pitts in a column The Pilot published this month.
I’m frustrated watching my nieces and nephews struggle with racism and having to talk them through it. I’m tired of reading stories that show discrimination in housing, in lending, in so many aspects that make the mythical “American Dream” an impossibility.
So while it is possible that racism and prejudice will diminish with each generation, I’m no longer convinced that they will be obliterated. There’s simply too much at stake in maintaining the status quo, in staying in this comfortable place where we don’t talk about racism and prejudice and their effects, where we continue to live the lie that everything is OK. We’ve come a long way since the various civil rights acts, but the distance we have yet to travel is equally as far and much more difficult.
At 25, I had hope. At almost 50, I’m struggling to maintain it. But an inclusive world is important, and I will continue pushing to get there.
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Vivian J. Paige, a certified public accountant, was co-founder of Norfolk United Facing Race. She writes a blog at http:// blog.vivianpaige.com and lives in Norfolk.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Please keep pushing.
If you were a Latina accountant and customers elected to leave for another CPA, just on a statistical basis alone, they would likely land with a White Man, or White Woman to do their books, since there are so few A-A or Latino CPAs. That is changing, but rather slowly.
On the other hand, where shall we draw the line between having our God-given right to freely associate, with the various government mandates designed to force the opposite behavior?
I used to go to an Asian woman dentist that was on my insurance’s approved provider list. She did a filling and when I told her that the crown was too high, she said that I would soon get used to it and sent me out the door. I went to another dentist to get her lousy work corrected. The second dentist was a White Man, but he could have been another Asian or some other background. He was just an approved provider and located nearby.
Your post made me wonder if the Asian woman dentist thinks that her customers are all prejudiced? Given her ego, she probably never once considered that there might be anything wrong with her manner or the quality of her work.
My father used to do business with the Black merchants who used to populate South Norfolk. He was one of the few White Men who would help these Black-owned businesses to get the appliances that they would sell to their clients. Most of his customers had very little capital. He made many deals where some customers got televisions for a dollar per week. When he died, all of those side deals that he had made were never paid off, but my I am sure my father didn’t care. He liked helping folks who started with next to nothing, to build their own business.
Today, we have over 44 Million White Americans who live in poverty, a figure that is greater than the entire Black population or the entire Latino population. As pointed out by Ambassador Andrew Young in a speech made at Mary Washington College, there is no effort by politicians or foundations to help this major segment of our American poor.
In contrast, if you take just the “African-American” population in America, their wealth would rank them as the twentieth most prosperous nation on earth. Pretty good for a supposedly “oppressed” minority.
In the private sector, we are still, for now, free to spend our money where we wish. Preferences based on race, gender religion (or lack of belief) all play a roll. Finding a niche here in America, as well as finding a location to operate are major factors in business success.
I agree with you that we should not have political factions pitting the White poor against the other minority communities. Such practices only exacerbates the worst sorts of behavior among our citizens.
I don’t know your work as an accountant, but as for blogging, your work is first rate. The best any of us can do is to do our work with care and let our work stand on its own merit.
Not that it matters to anyone, but there are millions of White Men who are not hired these days because the employer seeks to fill a particular position with a minority or woman, in order to fulfill some imagined “diversity” goal. African Americans used to love race-based quotas, but now, other minorities who are the new, “flavor of the month” favorite of the monied class, are being hired, instead of previously favored African American candidates.
Our best hope is to promote a society where hiring and promotion is based only on merit.
wooosh
J. Tyler Ballance. Just like clockwork.
Thank you for an intelligent and thoughtful column, Vivian. I really enjoyed reading it in the Virginian-Pilot, and appreciate you re-posting it here.
I do think things are getting better (slowly), but that just makes the unfortunate exceptions stick out all the more.
Well done, Vivian. Congrats on the placement.
Thank you so much vivian. You are a strong voice and keep at it.
There are two sides to prejudice. There are those who are prejudiced without seeing it, and there are those who see prejudice where it does not exist.
Very powerful points my sister in the struggle. And your points about racism and prejudice are dead-on. It takes power to practice racism, but anyone can be prejudiced. It’s a point that we too often let slip between the cracks in our eagerness to go along to get along.
Thanks, Vivian. Great post; I think about the -isms often. I’ve never particularly been a “feminist” but as I get older, our society certainly smacks of growing divides. Many of the things you wrote about “blacks” could have been subsituted with “women” just as easily… or as JTB pointed out, Latinos. And the list goes on.
Sometimes I feel the chasm widening vice closing. Keep up the good fight… it’s all about education.
Vivian, Keep writing, questioning, blogging. I admire you for showing up everyday. When the world has more Vivian’s than the others, it will be a better place.
I appreciate that you all took the time to comment. As long as we all keep pushing, maybe, just maybe, we can make this world a much more inclusive place.
Vivian, we have had parts of this conversation off and on for almost 5 years. I still think there is lots to say and plenty to talk about.
I thank you for keeping this in the forefront. I know that for change to take place, more doing than talking needs to take place.
Here’s to more doing, and of course more conversation.