Close to Home: Sonoma County has a race problem

Black people face racial discrimination here -- socially, in our business community, in our schools, on our streets and even our halls of government.|

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and don’t necessarily reflect The Sonoma Index-Tribune editorial board’s perspective. The opinion and news sections operate separately and independently of one another.

Sonoma County has attracted highly qualified African Americans to relocate here for work, but we have had a hard time retaining them. While Sonoma County may like to see itself as liberal and accepting, it all too often does not live up to that image.

It isn’t enough to hire a Black person into a good job or appoint them to a board. They must deal with bosses, colleagues and subordinates and must be able to make a life here for themselves and their families. Black people face racial discrimination here — socially, in our business community, in our schools, on our streets and even in our halls of government.

Nancy Case Shaffer
Nancy Case Shaffer
Kim Clement
Kim Clement

“Discrimination is real, and it is real in Sonoma County,” Santa Rosa Mayor Natalie Rogers said at a Black History Month event in Petaluma last weekend.

It’s hard for adults; harder for children. Many have simply moved away.

White people need to honestly confront the reality of racism in Sonoma County. Martin Luther King said this confrontation requires “a willing search for the truth and a willingness to admit the truth when we discover it.” You don’t have to be Black to know that racism in America is cruel, intended to demean and often violent. It is evil. And evil abounds when good men and women do nothing. We will not rid our community of the racism that has continued from generation to generation until the majority of white people are willing to denounce racism.

Racists intentionally exclude and harm people of color. Unconscious discriminatory bias is a subset of racism. We all develop implicit or unconscious discriminatory biases. For example, recently, one of our friends, who is Black, went to pick up an expensive order of flowers she had placed. When she arrived, she was asked if she was from Door Dash.

It was assumed that this well-dressed, middle-aged professional woman was there to pick up the flowers for delivery — for someone who could afford them? Because a Black woman obviously would have an entry-level service job?

Other friends report being followed in stores for no reason other than their color. A Black contractor faced so much mistrust from white prospective customers (refusing to shake his hand when he appeared to bid the job or suddenly changing their minds upon seeing his race) that he hired a white man as his sales representative. Unconscious bias? Racism? Black people in Sonoma County must deal with both.

As Prince Harry recently said, it’s not your fault if you have unconscious discriminatory biases, but once you know you do "you then need to make it right. It's education, it's awareness. And it's a constant work in progress for everybody.”

When racists Zoom-bombed a county meeting on homelessness in July 2020 — spewing racist words and images — the Black participants, all professionals, were left to work through the trauma alone. Our white community did not denounce this racism publicly and forcefully. We read a lot about racist acts, but we rarely read about white people showing outrage, saying we don’t condone racism and won’t tolerate it in our community.

How much a person pays attention to racial bias often depends on their own race. We strongly recommend viewing, “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” a documentary released in 2021 and available to stream.

Choosing not to be a racist must be an affirmative choice. If Sonoma County can’t build a community where good people of all races are valued, appreciated and accepted, who can? Who will? We urge all citizens of Sonoma County to find and eliminate their unconscious biases and to make the affirmative moral choice to personally, and publicly, repudiate racism.

Nancy Case Shaffer is a retired Superior Court judge. She lives in Glen Ellen. Kim Clement is a retired attorney. She lives in Santa Rosa.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and don’t necessarily reflect The Sonoma Index-Tribune editorial board’s perspective. The opinion and news sections operate separately and independently of one another.

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