Saturday, August 31, 2013

Are we there yet?

This week we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.  In that speech MLK Jr. spoke of a promised land of racial equality.  After more than 70 years of civil rights struggle and fifty years since the speech, the question “are we there yet?” is on many people’s mind.  The recent ruling by the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act seems to make the assertion that we have already been there for a while now.  The Supreme Court seems to say that the protections that have been written into our laws since the sixties, with the passing of the landmark Civil Rights Legislation and the Voting Rights Act, are less relevant anymore because our society has evolved and we have turned the page on the ugliness of the days of segregation.  In essence, the Supreme Court is making the statement that we are “there”.  So where are we? 

The Preacher in his speech fifty years back spoke of how the nation has defaulted on its promissory note of equality for all people.  He spoke eloquently of his dream of a society in which one day his four black children would hold hands with white children and walk the streets of Mississippi.  And he spoke of his dream of a society that will one day judge its citizens by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.  This speech was the seminal point in our march towards a society which could turn the page on its ugly history of racism and discrimination.  Many of us have a definition of “there”, as the society that Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed about.

By the definitions espoused by MLK Jr., and for many minorities in our society, we have indeed arrived there.  We have to look no further than the White House for proof.  The President, a black man, ran against two white opponents in consecutive elections and was elected by the country by overwhelming majority.  The country judged the man by the content of his character and the strength of his vision and not by the color of his skin and made the determination that he was the better man.  If MLK Jr. was alive today, he would be pleased with seeing a person of color sitting in the Oval Office.  While the black President is one powerful symbol of the progress we have made, it is not just an isolated symbol of progress.  We have today, many blacks and other minorities in several important positions of power and influence holding elected offices, leading major corporations and so on.  The richest woman in the television world and all of entertainment is a black woman, who gets recognized the world over by just her first name Oprah.  There cannot be a bigger symbol of economic progress that some in the black community have made in the last fifty years.

But still we are all not certain that we have arrived “there”.  Many of us still believe that there is work to be done and the struggle that was started more than fifty years ago has to be continuous and ongoing.  The doubters are justified in their feeling.  Not too long ago, a black teenager was murdered in Florida only because of the color of his skin and he looked suspicious because of that.  The nation erupted into a soul searching exercise of what it meant, whether the murder harkened us back to the days of 1955 when Emmitt Till was murdered in a back alley in Mississippi because of the color of his skin.  The fact that an isolated murder in the streets of Florida could evoke such emotions is proof that we are not comfortable that we have put the past of our racial history behind us.    Our feeling of inequality of the races is backed by several other stats – high rates of incarceration of young black men and women; high rate of single family households in the black community; national income averages among the black population that is lower than other racial groups; infant mortality rates among black population that is higher than other groups.  The bleak stats can go on for multiple pages.  The fact that one ethnic group is at such a disproportionate disadvantage has to be because of a reason.  And it is natural to say that it is because of racism and bigotry in our society and because we haven’t arrived at a place where the playing field is level. One cannot blame anybody for such skepticism.

There is a disproportionate percentage of the black population that is at a disadvantage today.  It is not because there is still widespread institutional racism.  It is because there haven’t been adequate well executed policies that ensured that the black community was given the lift that it needed.  The black community was in an incredibly deep hole when the country’s collective conscience recognized the injustice and inequality perpetrated on them.  We have to recognize that the hole was being dug for two hundred prior years.  We needed all the heavy lifting we could by passing of laws with enough teeth, framing of policies with long term effects, commitment of resources lasting multiple generations, and flawless execution across multiple administrations to ensure that segments of population that was deep down in the hole were given the buoyancy needed to get the lift and take off.  In the last several decades, we have waned in our support for economic policies that will provide the necessary economic lift.  And consequently large segments of the black community are trapped in the endless cycle of unemployment, poverty and crime.


The answer to the question “Are we there yet?” is not that straightforward anymore.  Clearly the train left the station five decades back.  Many bogies have already arrived “there” and the President, Oprah and the countless black men and black women in various strata of society are shining examples of the successful journey.  But several bogies of the train also got unhitched along the way.  And these bogies are mired in the tracks of unemployment, poverty, violence and incarceration and for them the economic deprivation of today is no different than the social deprivation of fifty years back and their destination looks beyond reach.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Shriram's road trip through the US heartland

In early August, my friend and colleague Shriram, who lives in Cincinnati, OH took a fifteen day motorcycle trip through the heartland of USA.  His road trip, in his Suzuki motorcycle, that covered a total of 4,300 miles and consumed a total of 110 galls of gas, took him through Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas to Colorado and he travelled back to Cincinnati via the Rocky Mountains, Yellow Stone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Minneapolis and Chicago.  Shriram put together a wonderful photo essay of his journey that captures beautifully the places he visited, the people he met and the experiences he had.  It is a very engaging photo essay and you can find it in Youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-EWahHzZo4)

While I was struck by the sheer adventurous nature of Shriram’s undertaking, I was more impressed with the stories that Shriram shared with me about the many people he met and befriended along the way.  These are strangers he ran into because of several reasons – because he was lost, because he ran out of gas and was stuck in the middle of a highway between distant cities , because he hooked up a conversation with someone in a gas station or in a restaurant, or just because he stopped and talked to someone.  The strangers extended their generosity, their friendship, their hospitality and the sheer warmth of heart to a fellow human being exploring the country.  These stories are incredible because they look improbable in this modern day and age.

While driving through Goodland, Kansas, Shriram saw a gentle looking middle aged woman walking on the road, and he stopped his motorcycle and said hello to her.  Lorma and Shriram became instant friends.  Soon Shriram found himself in Lorma’s house greeting her eighty year old mother and exchanging stories from his Indian background.  The evening turned into a two day stay in their house with shared cooking experiences, horse back rides and so on and a lifelong friendship that I am sure will endure.

And while crossing Kansas, Shriram ran out of gas and was stuck in the freeway.  Suddenly a stranger appeared from nowhere, pulled a gas can out his truck and filled up Shriram’s motorcycle.  The stranger turned to be a 30 year old transplant from Dayton, OH to somewhere in the middle of Kansas.  Gerald refused to accept any money for the gas, told Shriram that it is his duty and obligation to help another human being and the help was not rendered for money.  Last week, Gerald was visiting his family in Dayton and he made sure that he visited Shriram in Cincinnati before returning back to Kansas. 

On his return leg, somewhere between Rocky Mountains and Yellow Stone, Shriram was filling gas, when a stranger walked over to chat.  It turned out that the stranger was going to a camp that was gathering for a fund raiser to raise money for some veteran’s cause.  Soon, Shriram found himself following this stranger in his Jeep through some unpaved gravel roads off the main highway.  Shriram had no idea where he was and was scared whether he was doing the right thing and doubts formed in his head as to his safety.  Suddenly the stranger stopped his Jeep, and got out of the car and approached the trailing Shriram to inquire whether the dust that his car was kicking up was bothering him.  And if so, he wanted Shriram to lead the trail to the camp site.  They soon were in a camp ground with hundreds of people talking about their road trip, sharing drinks and dancing through the night.

We live in a world today where when we hear about such acts of generosity, and such friendships extended, they look improbable.  I don’t think we can blame us for that.  After all we are inundated by stories like that of the killing of Trayvon Martin by a George Zimmerman, because Trayvon was black and was in the “wrong neighborhood”; or the story of the killing of a student from Australia in the campus of Oklahoma University by three teenagers because they were looking for a cheap thrill; or the abduction of three teenage girls in the streets of Cleveland by a sex addicted school bus driver and holding them in captivity for more than a decade.  When all that we hear are these stories, it is only natural for us to believe that there is more evil than good among us. We ingrain our children from a very young age to be weary and vigilant of any strangers.  We reinforce such beliefs at every turn, for example we have successfully turned a festival like Halloween into an occasion to be suspicious of the generosity of our neighbors. And we get even more preoccupied with arming us even more with concealed weapons or automatic weapons that can fire thirty bullets in a minute so that we can protect ourselves from each other.

Shriram’s journey through the heartland of America was an exercise in sheer adventure and exploration and a desire to get to know better the country he has adopted.  I am so happy he did it and he shared his stories with me.  But for me, his stories are a reinforcement of my belief that we still live in a society where there is more good than we know or recognize.  I hope I have one day a chance to go on an expedition like what Shriram did and experience such goodness.  And I hope all of you have the same opportunity.

Thank you Shriram for doing the road trip and sharing your stories.