www.DonnaLamb.com

I consider myself one of the most fortunate people in the world because I get to spend a lot of time doing what I care about most: working to end racism and advocating for reparations to descendants of slavery.

I travel the country talking about "White Privilege: What Is It and How Does It Show Itself?" and, as its Communications Director, speaking on behalf of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE). I conduct workshops and I speak at universities, religious venues, and conferences as well as on TV and radio, though I go just about anywhere people want to hear my message.

I'm also a staff writer and photographer for Caribbean Life newspaper here in New York City where I live. That, too, is a real blessing because it's enabled me to learn so much about issues affecting the immigrant communities, which, as we all know, are usually strongly affected by racism. My "beat" is the New York City Council, though I also get to cover many other topics that are of particular interest to communities of color, and especially to the Black community.

You see, I actually consider myself a social activist who happens to be a journalist. I view every article as an opportunity to make the world a better place in some small way, whether it's through bringing attention to the plight of the homeless or the incarcerated, exposing police brutality, or, in order to counteract their constant demonization in the media, telling about the positive accomplishments of Black young men. I hope you'll check out some of my articles because I work hard to make each and every one of them as good as possible. I'm proud to have received a First Place award for Personal Commentary from the New York Association of Black Journalists, Third Place in the Best Public Affairs Article Division from the Independent Press Association of New York, and Contributor of the Year from Black Reign News.

I also love taking photographs. One picture really is worth a thousand words. I can't tell you how excited I get when I catch just the right image that clearly illustrates an article. I hope you'll take a look at some of my photographic work as well.

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri where I grew up in a home that had, as white families go, a fairly anti-racist climate. I can only imagine, for instance, the spanking I'd have gotten if I were ever heard using a racial slur. But meanwhile, as I know now, we enjoyed the privilege of simply not having to think too much about race and racism one way or the other because we weren't subjected to it. Like millions of families, even though we were basically on the anti-racism side, we didn't get out there and actively oppose racism.

In my late teens I moved to New York City, and soon I did get involved in social justice activism. Over the years I continued to attend meetings and take part in marches and rallies protesting war, the US government's unjust foreign policies, apartheid in South Africa, etc. But as often happens with white progressives, even though I saw myself as passionately for justice and staunchly against racism, I was essentially unaware of the true state of my own racial prejudice and blind to the institutionalized racism around me. I have to admit racism was pretty much a back burner issue for me - just one of the many social ills I worked to end nationally and internationally.

I was always an avid reader, and I eventually began reading biographies and autobiographies by African Americans and books about slavery. As I did, it soon became clear to me that in permitting chattel slavery, this country had committed an atrocity of massive proportions against people of African descent. Therefore, when I came across the concept of reparations, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to support it. I remember feeling that just as slavery is now seen as wrong, reparations would surely be seen as right. In my naiveté, it seemed so obvious!

Meanwhile, I continued to buy into the erroneous belief, commonly put forth by white progressives, that the most important thing is to bring about justice to all people, and that will somehow take care of the problem of racism. And unfortunately, even as I was smack dab in the middle of one of the most racially diverse cities in the world, nothing came along to jolt me out of my little white life in my little white world - until 1998 when Edwin Glosson, publisher of the Black newspaper, the San Antonio Register, asked me to write a weekly column for his paper. When I said yes, little did I know that this was to be a major turning point in my life.

At least I had enough sense to know that despite whatever I had read, my knowledge of what it was to be Black in America was woefully inadequate. I steeped myself in a self-administered crash course, reading Black newspapers, listening to Black talk radio, and doing various other things to familiarize myself more deeply with the African American viewpoint and experience.

Soon, my world was turning upside down. I was reeling as I began to understand that I'd spent my whole life looking at the world through a white person's eyes. There was a totally different way of perceiving and interpreting just about everything - from history to current affairs - from the way I'd seen it before. There really are what has been called "two parallel universes" in this country. I saw - really saw - for the first time that there is a chasm between what it's like being Black and what it's like being white in America.

I also saw that while my heart had been in the right place all along, I'd been merely dabbling in a struggle that requires an all-out commitment, for this country has never stopped waging war on the Black man. This was brought home to me by the murder of the West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, who, in 1999, was cut down in a hail of 41 police bullets. I could no longer feel satisfied with what I was beginning to realize were my namby-pamby efforts to oppose racism while horrible things like that continued to happen. I had to break out of my ivory tower and get into the street, mobilizing among the Black population my people were harming.

I joined the Rev. Al Sharpton's Harlem-based National Action Network (NAN) and began mobilizing with them. Among many other things I did with NAN, in April 2000 I got arrested protesting police brutality and spent 25 very educational hours in the custody of the NYPD. I invite you to read my article about it.

Also, after the publication in January 2000 of Randall Robinson's book The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, the subject of reparations began to gain more public attention. As I started talking to my friends and sending out articles about reparations, it soon became obvious that different from my initial response, most whites - even those who considered themselves liberal or progressive - were opposed to it. Never mind the fact that they knew next to nothing about what actually happened during slavery or how its lingering effects continue to blight the African American community even today. They had already closed their minds against reparations, and that was that.

Well, when I saw these reactions, I was horrified and ashamed. But instead of feeling disheartened, I was propelled into action. I knew I had to make the struggle for reparations a focal point of my life. After all, it's my people who benefited from slavery and continue to do so from its aftermath, so who more than me should step up to the plate to help rectify this great injustice? I wouldn't have been able to maintain a shred of self-respect if I'd said, in essence, to Black people, "Yeah, it's us who committed this crime against humanity, but don't expect me to lift a finger against it. You have to fight for justice from my people, not me."

On September 7, 2001, I turned in my resignation from a job I'd held for 17 years. I needed to be completely free to follow my conscience wherever it led me in this controversial work without having to worry about how anything I said or did reflected on anyone but me.

When I quit my job, little did I know that four days later the World Trade Center would fall, catapulting us all into a post 9/11 America. Here in New York City it meant 200,000 people out of work, but I was lucky to get a job with Caribbean Life newspaper. I was hired by its Managing Editor, Mr. Kenton Kirby, who is truly one of the nicest people I know. From there I began to carve out my future.

For some time I'd already been in close contact with Ida Hakim, CURE's founder. She continued to mentor me, teaching me about reparations and about my place, as a white person, in the struggle. She eventually asked me to become the organization's Communications Director, and I accepted.

I also wrote an article on how I benefit from white privilege, which soon led to my being invited to conduct a workshop on the subject at York College. It went over so well the instructor suggested I reach out to other colleges.

And, as I mentioned earlier, not only was I invited to speak in person on these issues, I was also asked to appear on TV and radio. Some of the appearances I've enjoyed most were the half hour TV programs "Your Point of View," broadcast several times throughout Prince George Sound in Maryland, and "The Listening Room," shown in New York City and throughout New York State, on which I spoke in depth about how I benefit from white privilege. It was also exciting speaking about reparations nationwide on Donahue, and I had a great time on Truth Rising over WURD Radio in Philadelphia. I was scheduled as the solo guest for thirty minutes, but due to an overwhelming call-in response, I remained for two and a half hours!

I have a chapter in CURE's new anthology, The Debtors: Whites Respond to the Call for Black Reparations, in which I write about how to answer opposition to reparations, plus the personal side of being a white advocate for reparations. An essay of mine about reparations is also published in The Scoundrel Syndrome: Essays on the African American Experience, 1995-2003, Revisiting the Real-Holocaust, by Dr. Gyasi Foluke.

Speaking of the personal side, as I've been out and around in the social activism arena, I've seen that while much is written and said about social justice issues of all kinds, and strategies for how to organize around them abound, there's a paucity of information about how to examine oneself and make sure that one's flaws as a human being - which we all have - don't interfere with our social justice work. Therefore, I've also begun speaking about how, just from the human angle, we can be at our best as activists. Please click here to find out more about this workshop.

Meanwhile, I continue to mobilize with various social justice organizations including the Black-led, multi-cultural Artists and Activists United for Peace Coalition and International ANSWER, and I also volunteer for actual hands-on work at various community projects, i.e. the Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen and the Community Service Society RSVP Planned Reentry for Incarcerated Adolescents (PRIA) program, in partnership with Getting Out and Staying Out.

The bottom line is, I love my life. In case any of you are contemplating throwing over your present life in favor of social justice activism, all I can tell you is this: It was by far the scariest thing I ever did, but also the most rewarding. I love being able to get up each morning knowing I have free reign to follow my conscience and to be true to myself, whatever I see that as meaning. I know of no greater life than that.