A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues - Steven S. Rogers

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Black America is the result of a terrible wound. Therefore, the task here is to heal that wound, to salve the hurt from the blow. Even Harvard University is now asking this question about redemption as they publicly recognize the fact that enslaved Black men and women were forced to work on the campus as early as 1639. In fact, the names of four of those enslaved people were identified in a ceremony on campus in 2016. Congressman John Lewis was the keynote speaker. Four of those enslaved people were Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba. They were owned by Harvard University presidents Benjamin Wadsworth and Edward Holyoke from 1725 to 1737.17

      The recommendations detailed in the following chapters examine how we may heal the wound by eliminating the Black-White wealth gap. To that end, the chapters will:

      1 Provide you with practical solutions on how you can help the Black community.

      2 Help you understand how you can improve Black-White racial relations.

      3 Teach Black American history that you likely did not learn in high school or college.

      4 Identify some root causes of the country's race problems, because root cause analysis is key to determining solutions.

      5 Help you empathize with the socioeconomic challenges experienced by most of the 30 million Black Americans who are not entertainers or athletes.

      6 Teach that Black Americans are the most loyal and patriotic group of people in the country.

      7 Teach that eliminating the $153,000 wealth gap between Blacks and Whites is the solution to an overwhelming percentage of our problems.

      Sincerely, your friend and advisor,

      Steven Rogers

      1 1. Jan, Tracy. “White Families Have Nearly 10 Times the Net Worth of Black Families. And the Gap Is Growing.” Washington Post, September 28, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/28/black-and-hispanic-families-are-making-more-money-but-they-still-lag-far-behind-whites/

      2 2. Darity, W. A., Darrick Hamilton, Mark Paul, Alan Aja, A. Prince, Antonio Moore, and Caterina Chiopris. “What We Get Wrong about Closing the Racial Wealth Gap.” Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, April 2018. https://socialequity.duke.edu/portfolio-item/what-we-get-wrong-about-closing-the-racial-wealth-gap/

      3 3. Baradaran, Mehrsa. The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap. Harvard University Press, 2017.

      4 4. “Slavery and the Making of America.” PBS. n.d. www.Thirteen.org. https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/about/p_transcript2.html

      5 5. Martin, Bonnie. “Slavery's Invisible Engine: Mortgaging Human Property.” Journal of Southern History 76, no. 4 (2010): 817–866.

      6 6. “Let Us Put Our Money Together: The Founding of America's First Black Banks.” n.d. www.Kansascityfed.org. Accessed December 27, 2020. https://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/aboutthefed/letusputourmoneytogether

      7 7. Berry, Daina Ramey. “Beyond the Slave Trade, the Cadaver Trade.” New York Times, February 3, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/opinion/sunday/cadavers-slavery-medical-schools.html

      8 8. Okeowo, Alexis. “How Saidiya Hartman Retells the History of Black Life.” New Yorker, October 26, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/how-saidiya-hartman-retells-the-history-of-black-life

      9 9. Keyes, Allison. “The ‘Clotilda,' the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found.” Smithsonian. Smithsonian.com. May 22, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/clotilda-last-known-slave-ship-arrive-us-found-180972177/

      10 10. Raines, Ben. “Wreck Found by Reporter May Be Last American Slave Ship.” Al. January 23, 2018. https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2018/01/alcom_reporter_may_have_found.html

      11 11. “Zora Neale Hurston's Lost Interview with One of America's Last Living Slaves.” Vulture. Apri 29, 2018. https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-excerpt.html

      12 12. Reeves, Jay. “America's Last Slave Ship Could Offer a Case for Reparations.” AP News. October 5, 2019. https://apnews.com/article/1f0c197b0a1740aea9d6e34db3d28c6e.

      13 13. Myers, Barton. “Sherman's Field Order No. 15.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/shermans-field-order-no-15

      14 14. “Veto Message.” The American Presidency Project. n.d. www.presidency.ucsb.edu. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/veto-message-437

      15 15. Johnson, Akilah. “That Was No Typo: The Median Net Worth of Black Bostonians Really Is $8.” Boston Globe, December 11, 2017. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/12/11/that-was-typo-the-median-net-worth-black-bostonians-really/ze5kxC1jJelx24M3pugFFN/story.html

      16 16. History.com Editors. “Tulsa Race Massacre.” August 6, 2019. https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

      17 17.

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