(Commentary)
I am a Black man, and the recent events in our country and our world brought me to this revelation, and I thought I would share this article in the hopes that it might inspire others to do their own self-evaluation.
I grew up in Chicago, IL, during the 50s and 60s. I reference those decades as they were my formative years. When I was in elementary school, my neighborhood began to change. There was the proliferation of gangs developing, so there was an ever-increasing fear of violence and gang fights with which my family had to contend. In retrospect, I can see how this began my own systemic fear of other Blacks.
This had not occurred to me previously until being engaged in a conversation about a hypothetical situation. That situation was me walking down a dark street and being approached by a group of young men. In one scenario, the men were White, and I didn't give it much consideration. In the next scenario, the men were Black, and I could feel in my emotions and body that this scenario would give me pause, and I might even cross the street.
As the shock of my reaction to even this hypothetical situation dawned on me, I also had an odd sense of understanding what some law enforcement officers might be experiencing. There have been several young Black men killed by police which has given rise to the current "Black Lives Matter" movement.
There was one incident where a health care worker was shot while on the ground with his hands up. The worker attempted to explain who he was, but obviously, the officer could not hear him. After the officer did shoot, the victim asked, "why did you shoot me?" The officer then answered, "I don't know." It then came to me that the officer was operating from what we now call systemic racism, which gives rise to fear. To my surprise, I began to recognize this fear and racism in myself.
Now in the United States, we are in the midst of a presidential election. The two major candidates have both been shown to have very low favorability among voters. One is male, and one is female. Hillary Clinton, the female, seemed to me to be receiving an awful lot of scrutiny and even attempted prosecution for missteps she made while Secretary of State for the US. The main problem was her use of a private email server. She endured several investigations over this and was not found to have committed any criminal activity. Now mind you, others in her position had done the same thing, but none were called to task over it.
She was also under investigation for her role in a shooting at the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. It was alleged that she did not provide enough security or oversight. After day upon day of hearings, there was nothing found that she did to cause or allow this action. It came out much later that the US congress had cut funding for security.
I had the opportunity to speak with many other men about this issue, especially those that hate or do not trust Hillary. When I ask them why none of them can provide concrete reasons or anything based on facts. All of this got me to start to question myself to see if I did indeed possess misogynistic tendencies and lo and behold, I do.
I can remember when I was younger and going to a dentist, and she happened to be female, and my initial reaction was that she couldn't possibly be any good. Then it happened again the first time I saw a female doctor. I started to ask myself: How could I have turned into a misogynist?
Then the awareness started to come to me. I discovered an article in Psychology Today that discussed misogyny and said that most men don't even know they have it! If you grew up in America during the times I did, it would be difficult not to become influenced by our culture. I can remember even the relationships in my own family where the women were subservient and not seen as capable.
Now I understand what is occurring in our country regarding race and gender issues, and how those things are affecting the current election. The biggest take away for me, however, is that I have personal self-evaluation and reflection to do, and I hope this short article might inspire others to do the same.
- Roger Burnley
©2024 Roger Burnley / The Burnley Method / Your Last Development Program