Still Invisible?. Elvin J. Dowling

verbally accosted by schoolmates while attending an elite summer enrichment program in New England:

       "It was a Tuesday afternoon when my 15-year-old son called from his academic summer program at a leafy New England boarding school and told me that as he was walking across campus, a gray Acura with a broken rear taillight pulled up beside him. Two men leaned out of the car and glared at him.

       “Are you the only nigger at Mellon Academy*?” one shouted.

       Certain that he had not heard them correctly, my son moved closer to the curb, and asked politely, “I’m sorry; I didn’t hear you.”

       But he had heard correctly. And this time the man spoke more clearly. “Only … nigger,” he said with added emphasis.

      My son froze. He dropped his backpack in alarm and stepped back from the idling car. The men honked the horn loudly and drove off, their laughter echoing behind them" (Graham).

      Fearing that his son's innocence had been irreparably destroyed by callous and cold remarks fueled by bigotry and ignorance, Graham lamented his mistaken belief that somehow, despite his Blackness, his children would be inoculated by the sting of racism's bite before relenting to the reality that the security provided by his wealth would only go so far in America. "I was certain that my Princeton University and Harvard Law degrees and economic privilege not only would empower me to navigate the mostly white neighborhoods and institutions that my kids inhabited, but would provide a cocoon to protect them from the bias I had encountered growing up," Graham wrote, marveling at his own naiveté. "My wife and I used our knowledge of white upper-class life to envelop our sons and daughter in a social armor that we felt would repel discriminatory attacks. We outfitted them in uniforms that we hoped would help them escape profiling in stores and public areas: pastel-colored, non-hooded sweatshirts; cleanly pressed, belted, non-baggy khaki pants; tightly-laced white tennis sneakers; Top-Sider shoes; conservative blazers; rep ties; closely cropped hair; and no sunglasses. Never any sunglasses," he continued (Graham). In doing so, the ivy-league barrister with the bank account to back it up sought a form of invisibility for his children whereby instead of "sticking out" as the only Black people in their social circles, they could help their children to "blend in" and, as such, escape the unfair treatment and marginalization experienced by less affluent minorities. His efforts, often sought by similarly situated Blacks, underscores the reality that Black males have of rarely being "seen" for the right reasons and almost always being "seen" for the wrong reasons; constantly finding themselves caught between a Scylla and Charybdis, having to always choose between the lesser of two evils.

      In a memorable episode of HBO's hit television series, "The Wire," character Marla Daniels once prophetically declared: "When the game is rigged, you cannot lose when you do not play." Recognizing early on that there was really no way he could ever win the unconditional acceptance of his white counterparts and contemporaries, Gregory Diggs determined early on that he would refuse to be quiet when there was so much worth being shouted from the rooftops. "As for me, I have always been a loud and gregarious person. Thus, I am actually never invisible. However, I was a Black boy and I am a Black man, and even though I was seen and heard, I would argue that I have always still been invisible" he remarked. "And what do I mean by that? I mean that unless I was with Black people, very seldom was I seen or appreciated for who I truly was. So, I would go to school and be part of the mainstream, but as an elephant in the room, if you would. But in the Black community, I could be me, where I grew up in a community that cherished our Blackness," Diggs recalled with jubilation. "We had an all-Black everything! We had Black programs, Black churches, Black activities, Black social events. In fact, the way we were as Black people, we could be different, or the same as, but we were always amongst a people who saw us for ourselves. Then, I remember that I have to go back into the workplace, where I am constantly reminded that, in their world, I'm really not there. Unfortunately, I think I've always been invisible as a Black man to white people" he resigned to himself.

      Be that as it may, the rude awakening that Diggs and, indeed, every Black male must encounter in an often hostile world, is their very Blackness itself, and how it impacts their treatment within the criminal justice system. , understanding the complex relationship that Black males have with law enforcement officials, starting at an early age, is one that cannot be ignored when it comes to the oftentimes traumatic impact it has on children of color. "I view the relationship with the police as an extension of the government," Diggs intoned, when offering his assessment of the law enforcement in America, particularly as it relates to their ever-growing presence inside America's schools. "The cops are an extension of the long arm of government. In fact, I'll take it a step further by saying that, if you understand that the Justice Department is an institution and, in American society those institutions are based on racist and sexist principles, and that the court and the police are arms of all of that, if you understand that, you will understand the different kinds of treatment that are given to people that are not part of the white mainstream society that this society is designed for."

      In illustrating his point that the cards are oftentimes stacked against even the most well-meaning, deserving Black children, including those with access to resources that even their white contemporaries may not have had, Diggs is quick to note the uphill battle Black boys face. "My youngest son had challenges in elementary and middle school because he was a student who was actually there to learn--and he wanted to learn! A high achieving student, my son often remembered what he was being taught at home when being taught errant or off-base lessons at school and would sometimes argue with teachers" he continued. "Sometimes they were both right and teachers had a hard time with him challenging them. But he wasn't challenging them because he was trying to be a behavior problem, he was trying to understand the information that they're trying to convey and, because of that, they often tried to counsel him out of the school system because, in their view, he was disruptive. Yet his test scores were very, very high. And it presented a conundrum for everybody," Diggs recalled. "Ultimately, the teachers admitted that, although my son wasn't always right, his questions made them become better teachers and he was oftentimes making a good point in the process. And this is why we, as parents, must continue to pay attention to, and stay involved with what's going on at school with our children."

      Describing what he believes to be effective "active engagement" in the academic progression of our children, Diggs stood by his belief in the power of "presence" on the educational outcomes of students. "What do I mean by being involved," he said. "I mean paying attention to what our kids are learning and being known for showing up at the school; by attending all of the parent/teacher conferences. In fact, don't even wait for the conferences, go to the classroom and introduce yourself," he continued. "Furthermore, when you look at the research you see that the parents who are more involved with their students when they are in school, the better the outcomes are for the students. The problem, however, is that our public-school system is not prepared for parents like me with children like mine," Diggs stated. "Our public-school system, in my view, is not prepared for well-educated young students of color. They tell us that we should do all these things to get ready for school and come in prepared to lean. But when you do that, they are not prepared for us. You have young people who are in kindergarten entering already either reading or writing having been exposed to first and second grade math. Our school system is not ready, and thus we have what many believe is a conundrum that contributes to perceived behavior problems."

      In spite of it all, Diggs is hopeful about the future of African-American men. "I would say that the state of the Black male in America today is emerging. I say it is 'emerging' because I believe there are multiple states of the African-American male evolving all at the same time; depending upon what you have, where you live and what your circumstances are. We have a lot of different things going on," he continued. "We have African-American males who are working hard, who are successful, who are doing well and who are going to be excellent in terms of their academic achievement and their professional achievement and their work achievement. Moreover, I believe we have a set of young males that are doing quite well and are going to be high achievers in their own right, and that bodes well for the future. Be that as it may," he went on, "I think most of our African-American males are somewhere in the middle: they do what they can do, work hard and want to be good citizens.