What Can I Do?
What Can I Do?
June 5, 2020
You are a very lucky higher education leader if the staff you gather around you ask the right questions! I wish there were more of such people at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right now.
Case in point in my own small, non-profit, higher education organization—in a Zoom staff meeting this week, we were discussing the citizen protests in response to the murder of Mr. George Floyd, that took place on June 1 in Asheville, N.C., not a place where we normally equate with the hotbeds of social protest. One of our staff members, our youngest, exactly 50 years younger than I, was sharing with us how he had participated in the protest gathering and was tear-gassed for his trouble. I was so proud of him and couldn’t help but remember how I was fired for my own civil rights activism in the small SC city of Rock Hill in the fall of 1969 at essentially the same age. In retrospect I am so glad I engaged in the work I did to advocate for the rights of others even though it cost me my first teaching job, at what is now Winthrop University; and in turn, that led me to my wonderful career at the University of South Carolina, an academic home much more conducive to academic freedom.
One of my other colleagues upon hearing of this gentleman’s participation in this demonstration then asked all of us, the question of the hour, the day, the week, the year: “But what can I do?”
If only we could get every American asking that question! And note, the question is not what do “WE” need to do? And it is not what does say the President needs to do? The question is what can I do? It all comes back to “I.”
I have often asked my students to tell me a 10-word sentence in which all the words have only two letters. And this sentence could be the answer to a question like: What is the key to success in college—or in life?
The statement is “If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me!”
So with respect to these gross inequities which are built into the foundational structures for our society, what can I do?
1. Talk to your children. As I told my colleague, first and foremost: It is our responsibility to raise children who are not racists and who have committed themselves to provide equitable treatment for others. In retrospect, I am acutely aware of all the prejudices I learned from my parents and how it took four years of a good college education to unlearn most of them.
2. Talk to other family members: I am doing this right now with my fifteen-year-old grandson. He gives me great encouragement when he tells me “Papa John: my generation is not nearly as racist as yours!” We are all responsible for raising the next generation.
3. Talk to others more broadly defined (just do it judiciously without getting fired!)
4. Practice mentoring and opening doors for others less fortunate than you. Most of us have more opportunities to do this than we take advantage of. This is not a time-efficient process. But it makes a huge difference for the advancement of others and can be a tremendous source of gratification, for both mentor and mentee.
5. Write to your elected representatives. If far more of us did this, we could really have influence.
6. Vote
7. Donate money to the candidates of your choice. This is the mother’s milk of politics. And this can be perfectly legal. It is definitely necessary. You’d be surprised by what small amounts can still make you a donor who gets the ear of elected leaders.
8. Have fundraisers for them in your home. Fat cats do this all the time. My wife, Betsy Barefoot, and I do a lot of this.
9. Attend local precinct meetings of the political party of your choice. And then go to your district conventions.
10. Volunteer to do anything in political campaigns.
11. Direct charitable giving to organizations that promote social justice, work for equity. There are so many possibilities in this category.
12. Use your organizational power to speak up and advocate. For those of us in higher education, our colleagues who are most able to do this are our tenured, full professors. What a privileged life we of this class have. And if we don’t use our power to advance others, in addition to ourselves, why should we have it in the first place?
13. If you personally don’t believe you have sufficient power, attach yourself to those who do. In higher ed organizations, of course, there are vastly differing amounts of formal and informal power. But frequently, those with the most power feel an obligation to advocate and speak for those with less freedom and power. But you have to align with these people to make this happen.
14. Create alliances with others, people, and organizations, to advance your causes.
15. Attend publicly announced demonstrations and peacefully stand up and be counted.
16. Attend publicly announced forums of your elected representatives, and speak up.
17. Do some of these, even one of these, if you can’t do all of them. Anything, I-you-do moves us forward from where we are now.
Personally, I do most of these. I haven’t always. This is a lifetime journey. We all have a “sphere of influence,” a “locus of control.” This means we are all members of some group, groups, organizations where we have a role, the status, the power, to have some influence on what others do and think. So how am I using my power to advance this cause for eliminating our societal injustices? Ultimately, this all comes down to what you, I, do.