Business leader, mother Shaheewa Jarrett Gelin: In America, you are still black first
I am a mother of a beautiful, brown skin five-year-old boy and the love that I have for him cannot be defined. It is beyond measure.
But if I rewind 13 years before I was married, I’d have to admit that I didn’t want a child. I knew my personal experience of having to avoid back roads in northern Florida while in college so I wouldn’t be chased and shot at because of my skin color. I was all too familiar with the attempt to make me feel like I didn’t belong in law school because “affirmative action” got me there. Oh, and the time when someone questioned who would hire me simply because he thought my name was “too black.” I understood the “force” that was trying to “keep me in my place” in America.
To be honest, I was especially afraid of having a boy. I knew that despite his natural loving heart, he would one day be deemed a threat and disposable simply because he is black.
This truth is fully captured on video for the entire world to see once again in 2020 with the brutal and merciless murder of George Floyd. I could not watch it as the pictures that popped up on my Facebook timeline were enough to bring forth a deep, horror-filled cry of sorrow for George, his six-year-old daughter, his family, and for our community.
It was too much. It was all-consuming. It was overwhelming.
The deaths of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland and so many others evidence the fact that after the American Civil War, this country was never reconstructed. It was never broken apart and put back together the right way. Reconstruction was supposed to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy but it failed under Andrew Johnson.
Yes, the Constitution was amended and civil rights legislation passed. But without the federal government to enforce the laws, we see what has been playing out for centuries. Each state and local government chooses to follow the law however it sees fit. This patchwork of misapplication of the law, socioeconomic inequality, and violence at the hands of the state plagues the lives of black people all over the country.
You are black first. Others might choose to see your humanity as a father, mother, son, daughter, aunt, uncle — or a beloved cafeteria worker like Philando Castile as he was shot by a white police officer in 2016. I am constantly being reminded of this, even as I watch a video captured by a news crew of the arrest of three black business owners who flag down police to point out looters.
In running the Broward County Black Chamber of Commerce, I have to fight the notion that black businesses are inferior and therefore unworthy of public and private contracts. I hear all kinds of excuses, such as we don’t have the experience, while others with less experience get a chance. Or silly comparisons, like “this company has been in business since 1929” and I wonder if the white male making the statement understands what it was like for a black person in 1929?
With George Floyd’s cruel murder, there is another cry for change. Once again, black people are asking for change to a system they did not build. We’ve been struggling to right the ship for a long time. It is time for white Americans to put into action what they say they believe in.
Stand for freedom, fairness and equity. Speak volumes with your votes. Don’t vote for a sheriff who won’t fire a police officer who kills with impunity or abuses the public. Don’t vote for a state attorney who refuses to bring charges against a killer in uniform. Don’t vote for a judge or any politician who takes money from police unions, as it will make them hesitate to do the right thing.
See something, say something. Speak up when you are in the company of racists or those who make such comments. Challenge your friends, family and colleagues. Provide support to someone who has experienced racism. Don’t turn your back on them in the moment.
Do something. Financially support and join organizations that actually fight for equity, inclusion, and fairness for black people on a local level. Don’t ignore what is happening in your own backyard.
No one is exempt. We all have to lean in to get the moral arc to arrive at justice, not just bend towards it.
Shaheewa Jarret Gelin is a lawyer and founder and president of the Broward County Black Chamber of Commerce.