Abstract:
This case is just one of many across the country that exposes practices that reduce efforts to provide the best care possible for communities. Termination for strong advocacy and dedication is often contrived and buried in false accusations. Racist and sexist motivations dominate and are condoned at the work environments of the university for which I worked and at the government agency overseeing the center. It is the intent of “White Privilege” to create and maintain the artificial barriers to continue racism and sexism in the ivory white towers of academia. The artificial barriers are hidden in the term “comfort zone,” where the issues can be avoided and not addressed because it makes people “uncomfortable”! “Comfort zones” are used to hide behind and as the rationale to fire people that unsettle their “white comfort zones,” saying we do not fit in their environment. They are used to address issues sometime in the future—a future when they dictate when it will be comfortable for themselves, a future that never comes for us! I raised seven children; it has been difficult to provide better for my kids because I always encountered these practices of exclusion. So we went without! The complicity of the institutions of government and academia allow these racist, sexist practices to continue. The pain and suffering of our people is increased by these practices. Let us bring down these bastions of racism! The university and government agency discussed here and other institutions must stop subsidizing racism and sexism! Resources should be returned to our communities. We must continue to demand and investigate the racist and sexist hiring practices of the university and the budget manipulations that take resources from our communities and subsidize bigots! For our children’s future!