Cup of Coffee

Once while driving to work I stopped at a red light and the car in front of me had a bumper sticker that said the following, “Our democracy ceases to exist when we take from those who work and give to those who don’t”. The bumper sticker was a stark reminder for me of why I do the work I do and why working for health equity and environmental justice is such challenging work. The path of least resistance is to divide the world into “those who work and those who don’t” or the “makers vs takers” as opposed to those with privilege and those without. One world view places blame on individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds while the other forces those of us from privileged backgrounds to examine our privilege and the role we play in the oppression of others. 

The words on the bumper sticker reminded me of the words of Walter Lippmann, an influential American writer and political commentator in the first half of the 20th century. In his book, Public Opinion, published in 1922 Lippmann wrote, “Stereotypes are pictures in our heads that we do not acquire through personal experience. They can also be described as irrational suspicions that are immune to information”. Almost a full century later Lippmann’s words still ring true. We must all engage in some critical self-reflection and ask ourselves tough questions Lippmann challenges us to ask. Are the opinions we hold about disadvantaged populations acquired through our own personal experiences? How open are we to changing our opinions when presented with new information? 

But then the work doesn’t stop there. We can only achieve the full and equal participation by all in our society when those from privileged backgrounds acknowledge it and work to do something about it.  Real change will only happen by challenging others to join you in your exercise of self-reflection. In other words, real change will happen when each of us feels the need to seek out people with bumper stickers like the one I saw and ask them to join us for a cup of coffee.