Don’t Doubt the Harshness of the Black Experience

By David Samuels
Special to The Outlook

David Samuels | Photo courtesy Yemi Kuku

Before I moved to the United States in 1991, I had very mixed feelings about this country that called itself a “melting pot.” Perhaps it was because my Jamaican parents had siblings that had immigrated here, just as my parents had immigrated to England after World War II. In actuality, I was curious about the U.S. because of its history and accomplishments.
As a young black British boy, it did not escape me that the racial history of America and England were significantly different. I was both aware of the relationship between England and its former colonies as well as the unique history in America regarding slavery, Jim Crow and segregation, and its laws and views on interracial relationships. Just as Alexis de Tocqueville, in his famous work “Democracy in America,” published in 1835, also noted the irony of the freedom-loving nation’s mistreatment of Native Americans and its embrace of slavery.
I, like many in this country, do admire the wonderful advances it has made, but I have never been able to look past the 400 years of American history and the traumatic experience of being black in the U.S. If that statement is somehow shocking, it is because so many are unfamiliar with the history of race in America. There was a time when Irish, Italians and Jews experienced racism and were not viewed as white. I have been studying the perspective of some black American scholars who have taken it upon themselves to deny systemic racism and other issues that disproportionately impact blacks, people of color and Native Americans. I cannot judge their motives, but have to question their intellectual integrity from a historical, sociological and psychological perspective.
If you are a medical doctor, extensive training is given on the impact of systemic racism on the health of African Americans — a “no-brainer” in medicine! This medical community made the connection with how COVID-19 was disproportionately affecting African-Americans. Simply put, living with systemic racism literally destroys your health on a molecular level.
This article isn’t all doom and gloom; I’d rather like to show how I am optimistic about what has happened in the last few weeks, but also to contrast the other 29 years I have lived here.
When I used the word racism at a diversity conference last year, the response from the audience was as if I had asked people to undress in public. Something very significant has happened since the murder of George Floyd, and has emboldened many to openly use terms such as “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” without hesitation. Many, to the contrary, are outraged and questioning this at length — including some of my closest friends. I feel compelled to ask them, “How can you question the reality of racism when a Christian institution, Bob Jones University, only lifted their ban on interracial dating in the year 2000?” My wife and I had two interracial children by 2000.
As a foreigner residing here, I realized it is patently obvious that the U.S. is historically racist at its core, as did Tocqueville. Slavery in the U.S. might be the most disgusting and inhumane historical sin — and if one thinks that it was something that ended “a long time ago,” then why did we need a civil rights movement? Jeff Bezos said it this way, “Slavery ended a long time ago, but racism didn’t.” The civil rights movement took place a little over 60 years ago. If you were to compare countries from a racial perspective, the U.S. was like South Africa — apartheid is what occurred in the U.S. from 1619 to 1954! The Constitution and laws separated whites and blacks and subsequently told whites that they were superior to blacks, and to blacks that they were inferior, scarring blacks psychologically, emotionally and economically.
My goal in this article is to connect my personal experience as a black British man to the harsh reality of the black experience. I met my ex-wife in London in 1990. She was born and raised in Pasadena. She is Caucasian. We fell in love almost instantly.
I knew there was a long history of segregation and racial prejudice in America. It wasn’t until 1967, the year before my ex-wife was born, that Loving v. Virginia was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down laws banning interracial marriage. The irony of writing this today is that not a single individual in 1991 could call this opposition to an interracial relationship as an act of racial prejudice.
Many people have been taught that blacks and whites are fundamentally different and “disagree” with interracial marriage. My three children have had to experience overt racism and racist comments. Racial prejudice is as real today as when the first settlers arrived here. I am not saying there hasn’t been progress; what I am saying is that racist views and systems still remain. This is the experience shared by me, an English black man, and the African-American man, woman and child.
I believe unequivocally that exposing and dismantling systems of oppression and injustice to be the work of leaders. Anyone who leads an organization has to understand that they are there to serve the people of that organization.

This means that when you serve, you look out for everyone. And where any form of injustice or inequality exists, good leaders advocate and mandate that those voices be heard and valued.
For the first time in almost 30 years, I am hearing non-black voices including Brene Brown, Simon Sinek, Marcus Buckingham, Bezos Price Waterhouse Coopers, NASCAR, the NFL and many other organizations advocate on behalf of black Americans. Amazon CEO Bezos sent a memo to employees urging them to cancel all meetings on the recent observance of Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. Twitter, Google, Square and even Facebook have chosen to commemorate Juneteenth. The CEO of Netflix recently donated $120 million to the United Negro College Fund. All of this is positive and recognizes that serious racial discrimination has existed in this country even though so many Americans refuse to believe and accept it. I challenge the skeptics to look at the work of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and the incredible legal justice work of Brian Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative.
I, too, in my years here have had personal experiences of racial profiling from the police in Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, Newport Beach and Los Angeles. Fortunately for me, I was not raised in a country where black parents have to have “The Talk” with their children about how to behave if and when they come in contact with the police. I’ve been exchanging text messages with friends who are trying to convince me with statistics that there are no inequities in policing between blacks and other groups. Again, this is no surprise to me — this was the narrative until the brutal murder of George Floyd. For these friends, they are still unconvinced of a problem. When Ursula Burns, the first black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, says that she is afraid of the police, I am certain some whites may be incredulous. This is exactly the problem — a decided unwillingness to listen to and accept the experience of black lives.
My hope here is to persuade the skeptic that the experiences of black people at the hands of systemic racial oppression and white supremacy have created unimaginable wreckage on black people’s lives. Enough is enough. In the words of Bezos, “The inequitable and brutal treatment of Black people must stop.” And to quote one of the great leaders in history, Martin Luther King Jr., “Our lives begin and end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

David Samuels, a Pasadena resident, is an executive coach, strategic adviser, mediator and TEDx speaking coach.

FLYING HIGH

California ad agency CEO soars to new heights after getting involved locally

We met at a local coffee place. “Please, no Starbucks,” he emailed when I suggested a meeting place. It had to be a place that was locally owned. He offered a few suggestions, seemingly not wanting to choose “which” local spot. When I met Pat Amsbry, it became clear why. He is intensely passionate about Pasadena, California, the community where lives and works – and he always supports local business owners.

I sat down with Pat, a second-generation owner of a 42-year-old media company to learn how his efforts to make a positive impact for his business and clients are making a difference in his community and beyond.“My wife Kate and I are deeply committed to the Pasadena community,” Pat said.The couple, married for nearly 25 years, are both local business owners: Kate is a realtor with Sotheby’s International Realty, and Pat is the owner of Flying A Media, a media-buying agency. They both work behind-the-scenes on numerous philanthropic endeavors, including volunteering with local public-school campuses, volunteering as reading tutors, and training to serve as volunteer officers with the Pasadena Police Department. Kate also mentors local high school students with their college preparation and applications, and Pat serves on non-profit boards and chairs the board of directors of a non-profit aquatics facility that serves the Pasadena community.

While Pat has remained quiet for many years about the ways he and his wife give back to the community they love, he hopes by sharing their story, others will be inspired to make a difference.“We’ve been encouraged to speak up because it might inspire others to get involved,” Pat said. But at the end of the day, “we do the things we do because we know it’s the right thing to do.”

Pat and Kate’s volunteerism, which began when their two sons, Jack and Tom, were young, initially revolved around fundraising for the boys’ school activities – helping out with Boy Scouts, and coaching their kids’ sports teams, including soccer, baseball, flag football, and basketball.“ For a long time, I was only focused on organizations that were directly related to my family,” recalled Pat. Their focus soon expanded when sons Jack and Tom entered high school.“ Our oldest son Jack was a Boy Scout and to achieve his Eagle Scout rank he needed to complete a pretty involved community project. He selected an organization called Reading Partners and then designed and built custom bookshelves, established a reading desk, and held a book drive and fundraiser for the organization. It was an amazing project and it opened up our eyes to the many organizations that were doing so much good in our community,” Pat reflected. “Jack is now a senior at Tufts University, studying mechanical engineering, designing and building bigger and better things and still inspiring us,” Kate added. Pat remembered, “we started to reflect on how grateful we are, and how fortunate we’ve been to raise our children in such a wonderfully diverse community.” Through this paradigm of gratitude, “it became important to us that we find a way to get involved and contribute to the Pasadena community.” The couple’s expanded mindset led them to discover other organizations within the city, notably the unique inequities in public education in Pasadena. “This became a really big interest for us – helping to create access to educational opportunities for kids both in and outside the classroom,” he said. “Our eyes opened to all that was going on in this wonderful city. A place that provided such an amazing upbringing for our kids and so many great friendships. So we began this journey of connecting with other communities, people, and nonprofit organizations.” One of their first independent philanthropic endeavors was partnering with James Madison Elementary School. “Madison Elementary is a beautiful school, built in 1926. It looks like it could be a movie location.” Pat noted. “For many years we drove by the school and never paid it much attention unfortunately and then three years ago we thought maybe there’s something we can do to get involved.” Their first initiatives were built around the classroom including providing classroom supplies, developing a school-wide attendance incentive program, supporting a teacher recognition program, and launching an annual book drive that has reaped thousands of books for the school’s library and the Reading Partners Resource Center on campus. The attendance incentive program now delivers outsized results for student attendance and has inspired a similar program launched across the district. Their efforts have evolved into an organization they founded called Friends of Madison Elementary, a nonprofit organization. What began three years ago has grown into a community organization, with a neighborhood advisory board, with the capacity to raise funds through tax-deductible donations. One hundred percent of the proceeds go towards creating more equity, greater access, and opportunity at Madison Elementary School. “With Friends of Madison, we have set out not just to support our friends at our local school, but to create a new, community-based funding model to try and bridge the gap between other sources of funds for local public schools. Our goal is to take this model to other communities so they can replicate it within their own neighborhoods and their own schools,” Pat said.

“We hope our concept proves that with some care and a little bit of effort, and support from the community, you can create a lot of good without a lot of red tape,” Pat noted. Today, Pat and Kate’s primary philanthropic focus is all about equity, access, and opportunity and it is the main reason why The Amsbrys decided to get involved with another valued Pasadena, California organization: the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center – an independent non-profit facility in partnership with the City of Pasadena, where Pat is now Chair of the Board of Directors. The Amsbrys were introduced to the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center through their son Tom. When only eight years old, Tom discovered the sport of diving – watching countries compete during the 2008 Olympic Games. It wasn’t long after that Pat and Kate enrolled him in a diving class at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. Well, Tom rarely missed a day in the pool and eleven years later, was recruited as an athlete by Amherst College in Massachusetts. “My wife and I didn’t know anything about diving when Tom started, but we learned a lot about the sport and became very involved, as we wanted to support his enthusiasm for this activity,” Pat recalled. Through his son’s involvement at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Pat discovered the rich history of the center, a history as rich as the property it sits next to – the 100-year-old Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. Pat ended up joining the Board of Directors before being elected Chair and his wife Kate would go on to serve for several years on the Dive Team Booster Board. The modern-era Rose Bowl Aquatics Center will celebrate its 30th year in 2020, and when Pat and Kate produced the 25th-anniversary celebration in 2015, they were given the latitude to create the theme. They chose “triumph over adversity” and invited 94-year-old diver, Dr. Sammy Lee, as one of the guests of honor. A resident of Pasadena in the 1940s, Sammy Lee, who was a Japanese American, practiced at the old Brookside Plunge (since demolished, the plunge was located in the approximate location of the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center). In that era, Sammy Lee had to abide by the “plunge rules” at the time, which meant he could only use the pool one day at the end of the week. “Only white people could swim the other six days,” Pat said. “At the end of the week, on International Day, people of color were allowed to use the pool.” Sammy Lee was the first Asian American to win a Gold Medal for the United States in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. “He didn’t let those very unfair rules hold him back,” Pat continued. “Sammy was a warrior; he would practice his diving into a sandpit.” Sammy Lee passed away in 2016.“ It was really important for us to find Sammy Lee and honor him at the same place where he was treated horribly so many years ago,” Pat said. “We wanted to treat him wonderfully and honor how he triumphed over adversity. Sammy was a true champion and hero.” Pat and Kate have continued to work with the management, coaches, staff, and the board to advance the mission of the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, so that, as they say, more can have these “Gold Medal Moments.” Today, these moments are reflected in the center’s programming for children and young adults with special needs. The center is also home to a warm water therapy pool that helps people of all ages recover after an injury.“ The Gold Medal Moments mean a lot of things,” Pat said. “It could be a young woman on our nationally ranked youth water polo team having the best game of her young career, or it could be a woman like Maureen Kornfield, a world champion swimmer who is 97 years old and drives from Hollywood to swim on our team.” Kate and Pat are especially proud of the center’s Water Safety & Learn to Swim program for children. This program, in partnership with the Pasadena Unified School District, provides critical water safety training for every third-grade student at no cost. “They are given professional swim lessons and we pay for chaperones, transportation, and swimsuits for the kids because we know it’s the most important thing we can do to prevent accidental drowning in our community,” Pat emphasized. He and his wife are also working towards eliminating accidental drowning incidents across the country. Pat explained “the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center has developed a powerful water safety curriculum; we provide this programming to all the kids in our community at no cost. Our vision is to syndicate this so it can be implemented in more communities and help more children and adults become water safe. We work hard at fundraising so we can provide access to our pools, our programming, and our competitive teams to everyone in our community, regardless of their ability to pay. Along with water safety education, access to a pool for everyone in our community is a big priority.” Pat’s enthusiasm for the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center is boundless: “It’s such a great honor to volunteer for an organization that impacts so many Pasadena residents. We serve the community with a robust variety of aquatics programming for every age and ability level – from toddler programs, competitive programs, water aerobics, our Rays program to Olympic qualifiers. With 500,000 people through our door each year, we work hard every day to maintain the highest safety standards and provide access to everyone in our community.” Needless to say, Pat Amsbry spends a lot of time outside his office’s four walls. But this professional entrepreneur, when he is sitting at his desk, is piloting Flying A Media, an advertising agency based in Pasadena, California, an agency founded by his father in 1978. Pat joined his dad as a partner, and they worked together up until his father’s retirement in 2019. Today, as a second-generation owner of the company, “my vision is to grow the company in a novel way, to create amazing results for our clients and use the business as a force for good – to provide opportunities for everyone on the team in a way that we believe is different than most companies,” Pat noted. Flying A Media is now a “conscious company” and is working towards becoming a Certified B-Corporation. “As the company grows, the financial and outreach opportunities for all those on the team will grow as well. We already match employee charitable contributions and offer our employees the opportunity to give back through paid volunteer time. Whether it’s the Pasadena Humane Society or The Meow Meow Foundation, we want everybody on the team to find what they’re passionate about…there are so many wonderful nonprofit organizations in our community.” Flying A plans to make a significant community impact by sharing a percentage of their profits through a donor-advised fund that is specifically designated for nonprofit organizations in Pasadena.“ I am choosing to run a ‘conscious company’ because I care about my community and my team, and, it’s just the right thing to do,” Pat said. “If there isn’t a benefit to our business, I’m still going invest in my team and my community as long as I can do it.” As Pat finished his second cappuccino, he said he couldn’t let me go without pitching me on Civitas Pasadena. He is a founding board member of this new organization of diverse and dynamic business leaders who want to make a positive difference in the community. “It’s a fascinating group of people” Pat excitedly explained, “you have to join me at a meeting.”

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Alicia Doyle is an award-winning freelance journalist whose articles have appeared in The LA Times, San Diego Tribune and The Ventura County Star. With an affinity for human interest stories, Alicia has taken a special interest in those people, places, events and organizations that have positively impacted the world around them. Alicia lives in Ventura, CA.