By Debbie Allen, Cofounder, Poets Against Racism & Hate USA
FACT: In the United States, Whites are about 20% less likely than Blacks to be denied a business loan.
FACT: In the United States, Whites are about 40% less likely than Blacks to be searched during a traffic stop.
FACT: In the United States, Whites are over 40% less likely than Blacks to die as babies.
These disturbing points are made by the Racial Equity Institute (REI) in its thought-provoking Groundwater Racial Equity Training program. REI is a consulting firm committed to increasing understanding and analysis of structural racism. As PARH USA’s cofounders, Patricia Thrushart and I make efforts to learn more about topics relevant to our cause. To this end, I attended a recent Groundwater Racial Equity Training session offered by The Columbus Foundation, a charitable organization in Columbus, Ohio.
The basis of REI’s training is a metaphor that compares the nature of racism in the United States to groundwater. Groundwater exists ubiquitously just under earth’s surface and feeds our sources of freshwater. Participants in REI’s training are encouraged to imagine a group of lakes in which certain kinds of fish are struggling to survive. The lakes are seemingly unconnected, yet the same phenomenon is present in all of them. In the metaphor, the struggling fish represent individuals of color and the lakes represent systems in the United States, such as the financial system, criminal justice system, health care system, education system, and so on. When people of color in our country are struggling across multiple realms, the REI experts explain, the problem must run deep. The problem is structural racism, and, like groundwater feeding lakes, it seeps into each of our systems.
Importantly, REI backs up its groundwater metaphor with powerful data—not only data indicating that systemic racial inequities exist (such as the stats listed above) but also data debunking perceptions of why racial inequities exist. Spoiler alert: The inequities experienced by people of color cannot be explained away, as racist dogma might allege, by their socioeconomic statuses, their behaviors, or their cultural values. Several examples provided by REI support this statement. I’ll explore one by keying in on a stat listed above. Why is the likelihood of a Black baby dying so disproportionate? Some may claim that racial differences in infant mortality occur simply because of socioeconomic, behavioral, or cultural differences. In refuting this myth, REI leaders provide examples from a copious body of relevant research. Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for instance, show racial disparity in infant deaths even when the socioeconomic factor of level of education is controlled for. CDC researchers found that White women with high school diplomas or GEDs have lower infant mortality rates than Black women with master’s or doctoral degrees. Additionally, data from a groundbreaking Institute of Medicine study indicate that “minorities are less likely than whites to receive needed [health care] services” and “health care providers’ diagnostic and treatment decisions, as well as their feelings about patients, are influenced by patients’ race or ethnicity and stereotypes associated with them.” Such evidence suggests the existence of alarming inequities in our health care system that lead to lethal outcomes for Black babies.
Within the PARH USA community, we know Black people face challenges not faced by White people. We know our country’s systems aren’t serving people equitably. The question for us is this: What can we poets do about it? Returning to the metaphor, addressing one sick fish or one contaminated lake is only a temporary solution when toxic groundwater continues to feed every lake. What we poets can do is use our craft to increase awareness and understanding of our nation’s groundwater problem: ubiquitous racism. Consider the information provided herein. Dig into the data further. Attend an REI training or identify your own ways of exploring structural racism and its effects. Then turn what you learn into poetry and share widely whatever poems transpire. As poet Yusef Komunyakaa has said, “poetry is a kind of distilled insinuation…a way of talking around an idea” that can have greater impact than “a full-frontal assault.” We believe poetry is power. Let’s use that power to generate groundwater change.
Sources
Komunyakaa, Y. (2000). Blue Notes: Essays, Interviews and Commentaries (R. Clytus, Ed.). University of Michigan Press.
Love, B., & Hayes-Greene, D. (2018). The Groundwater Approach: Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism [white paper]. Racial Equity Institute.
Racial Equity Institute. (2020). Groundwater Racial Equity Training [PowerPoint slides].