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To Be Considered Equal

“If you are going for a job, and all the white people applying for that job have a high school diploma, you better have a college one. And if all the white folks have a college diploma, you better have a Masters. And, if they all have Masters, you better have a PhD.”

This is what my Grandmother told me. Growing up, I heard it over and over again.

In order to be considered equal (not “assumed” — because we never are and never have been — “considered”), we had to be better. For us, equal did not mean “the same”. It meant “better”. Because of the color of our skin, we had to be better just to be allowed in the room. To even have a chance. Just to keep our application from going straight into the trash bin.

I will note that my Grandmother had a PhD. As did each of her siblings.

She insited everybody outside of her family call her Dr. Southall. She never let them forget.

“We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.”

— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Redlining, Segregation, Property, and Freedom

A Short History of Housing Segregation in America

This is important.

I have not really talked much about this, but I have a long term project I’ve been working on about the connection between property/land ownership and freedom in America. Many of our governmental and societal ills can be traced to the fact that, from the very start of this country until relatively recently, property ownership was a requirement for voting.

This is more than (just) about race. If you think, “Hey, I own a home, I’m good.” and you have a mortgage, then you don’t really own your home. The bank does.

Few things make me sadder than how much we as humans short change our capacities.

All that we have the capacity to create, we have the capacity to change.

If we built it, we can tear it down. If we tear it down, we can build anew.