Dr. Alex Gee on Educating Wisconsin About Racial Inequity

Frederica Freyberg:
Also at the Capitol this week, hundreds gathered to commemorate the life and lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a keynote address from Reverend Dr. Marcus Allen, Sr.

Marcus Allen:
And let me commend the state of Wisconsin for being one of the first to honor this giant of a man, the liberator of our people, the drum major for justice, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and has continued to honor this hero for 43 years no matter who has been the governor of this state.

Frederica Freyberg:
Dr. Allen’s speech impressed upon the dangers of apathy when it comes to racial injustice in education, healthcare, fair housing, wealth inequality and Black history. And he highlighted the work of Dr. Alex Gee, who created a classroom to teach the broader community that Black history is American history. Gee founded the program, Justified Anger: Black History for A New Day. “Here & Now” special projects journalist, Murv Seymour, spoke with Alex Gee about the last decade of this work.

Murv Seymour:
Ten years is not enough time to fix all of our problems in the Black community, but it’s enough time to move the needle. How much has the needle moved since you began this effort?

Alex Gee:
The issue with the Black community is not the Black community. The issue with the Black community is systemic racism. It’s the structures that are in place and people that are leading them and benefiting from them. That’s got to be changed. That’s got to be acknowledged. That’s got to be held accountable if we’re going to really see true thriving. So when people ask me, “Are things better?” I want to ask them, well, how have you changed? How have your friendships changed? How has your office changed? Your board changed? Your leaders changed? That’s the true indication of this. I’m not fixing Black people so that white people can feel more comfortable. By addressing the issues of Black people, I’m helping this community to become really what it can be, who it really can be, and the place where everyone can thrive. But until then, I’ll train would-be white allies to understand the benefit of work that they do in their communities to help them dismantle these impediments to Black wellness and Black health. When that begins to happen on a large scale, we will see huge change. So the white community is not waiting for us. We’re waiting for the white community.

Murv Seymour:
The effort in Justified Anger is not just to educate about Black history, it’s also about letting white residents learn about themselves.

Alex Gee:
Oh, oh, definitely. Because learning about Black history won’t change anything. Learning about themselves will change everything.

Murv Seymour:
What do they learn?

Alex Gee:
They learn what’s really meant by the term white privilege, that that’s not just a moniker. That’s it’s not just thrown off on people. Because you’re given the option to not only to be white, which is to be American, but to not be Black. So that no matter what they, the country, put on you as a white person, you could always say, at least I’m not Black, and so then that completely polarized the country between Black and white or white and other. And when people learn that they realize that once you dichotomize people that way, once you polarize them that way, you can put them at odds around anything. Separate them how they live and they never come together so that we never work together. We don’t create solutions together without even realizing it, we’ve been made to be the enemies of each other and fearful of each other.

Murv Seymour:
How does the program work?

Alex Gee:
I’ve always thought if people understood how we got to where we are in terms of race relations, let’s just talk about the way the country was built. Let’s look at our history at a nonpolitical, academic perspective. I felt that people, non-Black people would say, wow, I didn’t know that. Really. Hmm. I understand things a lot differently now. Now I know how strategic we must be in dismantling this if people were very strategic in mantling this and it’s been a very, very powerful tool for helping people to understand how we arrived at this place of a racialized America.

Frederica Freyberg:
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