A Starbucks in Philadelphia, a golf course in York, Pennsylvania, an Airbnb in California, a college tour in Colorado, a common dorm room at Yale. These are the stories of every day racism that have gotten 
significant media attention recently. Yet we all know there are many more stories just like this. And they are happening every day and in every part of the country.
This week it was a blatant and demeaning racist comment from the star of one of ABC’s highest rated shows and money maker. ABC leadership acted swiftly. As they should. ABC Entertainment President, Channing Dungey, announced that the network decided to cancel the show in one brief statement: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”.
The target of that comment, Valerie Jarrett, former White House senior advisor to President Obama, took the high road. On a MSNBC special program called “Every Day Racism in America”, that same night, she said we should use this as a teaching moment. She was fine but worried about all the people who don’t have support systems, or a circle of friends, to come to their defense. She said she worries about the person of color who experiences a stranger clutching their purse out of fear. And the mothers who must teach their teenage sons to be careful with police.
Yes, these incidents are all teaching moments. Teaching every one of us as leaders about the kind of tolerant, respectful organizations we must create and maintain every day. Teaching us that we need to be the kind of leaders that go high when others go low. And teaching us not to punch back 10 times harder, if we are punched.
Teaching every one of us that we must say something when we see something. The Starbucks incident when two black men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were arrested for meeting in a Starbucks without ordering went viral because white people videoed it and shared it on social media.
We cannot sit by and let every day racism happen around us.
Working in healthcare organizations for most of my professional career, I spent every day in one of the most diverse workforces. Treating every person with respect was part of the culture.
I am watching my grandchildren grow up in more diverse environments than I or my daughters ever did. They don’t see color in the same way. And that is good!
Over the Memorial Day weekend, we went to an extended family picnic. There was a band led by a relative, and it played for a few hours outside. The nearest neighbors had been given a heads up, but the police arrived after a neighbor complained. None of us were worried. It is a white neighborhood and everyone at the gathering was white. One of the senior family members realized she had taught a child of one of the police in elementary school. It was clear nothing was going to happen. We told the young children who were watching the conversation with the police to always be respectful, not to argue, and not to run. But we knew nothing was going to happen. Is this an example of white privilege? Probably yes.
Another family story: My niece and her husband are Korean. I recently shared a video on FaceBook of a woman who yelled at a Korean-American veteran to ‘go back to China’ while making a racist gesture from her car. My comment when I shared the video was, “If you think people are safe going about their daily lives, just watch this. So much hate for nothing.” My niece replied, “Just the other day I was called a “Chinese Bxxxx” (rhymes with witch) because I was apparently in a man’s way on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, this stuff is very common.”.
Starbucks’ leadership took an important step – closing all its 8000 stores on Tuesday to conduct anti-bias training for its 175,000-person workforce. The very next day I was in a Starbucks to meet with a colleague. I asked the young barista about the training. She said it was an eye opener and much needed. She talked about the importance of learning how others perceive things differently.
Comments, rants, tweets and statements, and unnecessary calls to police are not isolated incidents. They represent a way of thinking, a point of view. It is up to all of us to openly challenge them and support people of color who live with every day racism.
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