The Color of Help

This morning I was looking at different professional opportunities involving civic engagement, voting, democracy and community involvement on the internet. The sites were full of people who were happy doing altruistic and fulfilling work. Picture after picture, I saw plenty of faces smiling while taking a break from whatever project or event of which they were in the middle. Young faces, older faces, clean faces, dirty faces, well-kempt and scruffy. After seeing all these pictures I was left with a bittersweet feeling. 

I have been involved in a variety of programs and initiatives directly related in civic engagement in my life. This involvement has been in different parts of the country, working on different issues and with populations of different education, religion, age and class, but there has been one alarming consistency in most of my experience, lack of racial/ethnic diversity.

I understand that people get involved with things or causes that they're interested in, but what I don't understand is how so many of the issues (education, health, the economy, religion, politics/government, crime, etc) affect minority populations in most adversely and yet the people most often to be found working in the trenches don't look like those populations. 

Here are the explanations I've heard:

1. Minorities are too busy overcoming the issues that plague them to bring some attention to these issues and work to make them better.

2. Whites are less burdened, because of the societal advantage that accompanies being a member of the power race, so they can spend time addressing whatever issue they see fit to address.

3. Minorities are lazy and would rather complain and collect welfare or some other kind of handout than be a part of working to make things better for themselves or anyone else.

I am sure of two things: 1. There are other popular explanations to this dynamic that I am either forgetting or haven't heard and 2. There are more reasonable and accurate explanations to this dynamic.

What I am not sure of is how to shift this dynamic, because while I know that the "have-nots" are in as bad shape as they have been in a long time, I also recognize that there cannot be significant progress on any or all of these issues if this status quo continues. Any lasting solution to problems like equitable funding for education and health care have to come in part from those who are being most directly affected by the problem. 

If not, the solution will most likely come from those who were a apart of its creation. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for those creating the mess being a part of the clean up (i.e. U.S. involvement in recovery efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gulf Coast States affected by Hurricane Katrina), but if those who created the problem could really be trusted to fix the problem by themselves, the problem would never have existed.

All that being said, if those who are being most affected by the various issues that plague this nation can't find the will and the way to be apart of solving them, things will never get better. It takes many different perspectives to honestly identify a problem, so it just make sense that as many different perspectives would be needed to solve the identified problem. 

If you live in a neighborhood riddled with crime, then you need to go to anyone who will listen and get someone to do something about it and that could take the form of a neighbor crime watch or more funding for police to patrol the area. If you live in a part of town with no polling place within a reasonable distance of everyone in your district, you need to go to your councilman, alderman or selectman and find out why this is and what needs to be done to address the issue.

It's great that there are so many people working on issues that they are not being directly affected by and this needs to continue. What cannot continue is for those who are being directly affected by a particular issue deciding not to be an active part of addressing that issue. If you have enough energy to complain or be angry about it then you have enough energy to make things better and if not, then own up to that and suffer in silence.

CW