These are truly dark times for those of us who have spent much of our careers combatting racism in its many forms.
The surge of attention to racial inequity across various sectors of society early this decade quickly subsided, replaced by the cold and calculating rollback of many hard-fought gains of the last half century.
We are handing the next generation a rebuilding task that we never would have imagined. This is absolutely heartbreaking to me. What does this mean for them? What does this mean for us?
I’ve been curious about what my own children think about these issues, as they’ve moved into adulthood. Layla is 28, Malik is 26 and Ayande is 22. I realized that perhaps others would be interested in hearing this conversation, so I invited the three of them to join me on an episode of our NP3 podcast Bending The Arc and I invited my wife Me’lani to co-host.
As you will hear, I was quite surprised by the direction of the conversation. While they confirmed my expectations about their dismay about the state of affairs in our country, ultimately their outlook was inspiringly hopeful.
And their reasoning was sound:
Layla:
“I am extremely hopeful because I think that the folks in power are relying on us to lose hope.”
“I am relying on imagination and creativity and curiosity and thinking that the way things are today are not how they always have to be.”
“These systems were created, and they can be dismantled.”
Malik:
“Chicagoans’ recent response to the ICE raids gives me hope. If we have a common struggle, if we’re all going through similar experience, then we might have more empathy for each other.”
“I think we need to just get bolder. We need to be able to talk to people regardless of their appearance. That’s how we’re going to be able to gain respect for each other.”
“If we realize that we have more in common than apart and separate, then I think that’s how we move forward.”
Ayande:
“We in the United States have always kind of felt very proud of who we are, very patriotic. But now we are beginning to understand some of the flaws in our own country.”
“When we have people outside our country that are asking questions and holding us more accountable, I think that is very helpful.”
“It’s going to take a humility from us to realize there’s so much better we can do.”
Check out our conversation here on the 39th episode of Bending The Arc.
This initial conversation with my own kids has me really curious to hear from other voices in their generation. What might we learn from young people with other life experiences and from a broader range of backgrounds? So stay tuned for more intergenerational conversations on race and racism.
And in the meantime, stay hopeful, and keep doing your part to bend the arc.
Mark
