A Black Hardship

Disappointment.

As a black person in America one of the constant things that makes life challenging is the consistent disappointment you experience from people (of other races). Eventually you come to expect even the people you hope to know better will disappoint you. As an ethnic minority the cuts (slights, comments, face-to-palm moments) number into and well past the 1,000’s (millions) in a lifetime.

From micro-aggression, to unconsciously racist statements, to saying you don’t see color, to the granddaddy of all racist responses, “I’m not racist, I have (an ethic minority) friend.” In my life, I batched all of this disappointment into the collective category of “human failings”.

Although I should not be surprised when corporations also fail in recognizing and respecting ethnic diversity - they are made up of humans after all - the pain from their cuts are compounded with a Bruce Lee punch (quick and powerful) to the stomach. Expelling all air, and what feels like the remaining life from your soul. Mostly because within these corporations are people you have worked with for years, you have shared lunches with each other, and occasionally, albeit rare, been present during some meaningful moment(s) in life with. It hurts a little more when corporations (the people you work with) make a decision that feels like a slap in your face.

It feels more like dropping a megalith to your heart. The hope is for an extension of an olive branch for the possibility to the notion that you are “seen”, yet time after time, disappointment ensues.

So what is one in my shoes to do? Be hopeful - for what? If the hope I had for humanity no longer exists, what then is there to put hope in when humans are life’s greatest disappointment?