Doing Our Part for Diversity

Two articles caught my attention in today's Wall Street Journal. One reported the appointment of the first black female CEO of a Forbes 500 company. Walgreens, the country's largest drugstore chain, found the woman through a search run by an outside firm. The current CEO was quite excited to make a newsworthy statement about how diversity is the most important thing in this "current climate of systemic racism." (What he didn't say but was probably thinking was please don't loot our stores and all black people should shop at Walgreen's.)

The second article reported that the San Francisco school board, by a vote of 6 to 1, will remove the names George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Dianne Feinstein from public schools after deeming them "unworthy of the honor." Forty-four schools are slated for new names "unconnected to slavery, oppression or racism."

I realized that this was the only instance in which George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Sen. Dianne Feinstein would be seen as equals. I also thought of all the other things that would have to go: The George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel and Lincoln Center in New York City, every town and city in America named either Washington (311) or Lincoln (205), the city of Washington, D.C. the state of Washington, the Washington Memorial, the newly-named Washington Football Team, Denzel Washington, the Lincoln Memorial and the Abraham Lincoln Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky.  

This all got me thinking that never in 34 years of marriage have my husband and I hired a black person. We are guilty of systemic racism! So our next pet-sitter will have to be black. (It'll be tough breaking the news to Mary, the white woman we've hired for the last five years who our cat has finally bonded with, but hey -- time marches on.) Ditto every window-washer, house painter, plow guy (or gal), landscaper and cleaning person, who until now have all been white. It's gonna be tough accomplishing this in Maine where the black population is only 2.23%, but it's the least we can do. That, and shop at Walgreen's from now on.