Hush Money, How One Woman Proved Systemic Racism in her Workplace and Kept her Job, Jacquie Abram, Deborah Harris, authors
When I began the book, I was unsure of what to expect. It is fiction, after all, based on true events, but I had no idea about how the racism would be framed. To my horror, it kept on coming and coming. Although I assumed that the descriptions of the abuse were a compilation of many incidents, consolidated into the life of this one woman, which made it that much more malevolent, the abuse came on so fast and so furiously that I began to literally have stomach pains every time I picked up the book as I wondered what new vicious plan would be set into motion, as I wondered how could this be possible, especially in a place involved with higher learning?
I can only hope that all of this never actually happened to any one person, because I think it would be impossible to survive emotionally intact, if that was the case, and to prove that, the main character struggles mightily with her mental state. The stress of her life was pressing her down into a state of despair.
So in order to tolerate reading about the injustices committed by obviously devious and malicious people, I chose to assume that in real life, these horrific incidents did occur, but to many people and perhaps over more than five years. How they could these despicable actions not have been resolved immediately between the years of 2012 and 2017? It happened largely during the time of President Obama, our first black President. Surely, racism issues should have been swiftly addressed and rectified, at least during his time in office when the country hoped to go through a period of civil rights enlightenment.
While reading the book, the reader will find that many emotions will be aroused. At some points fury, at others times shock and perhaps suspicion, and still at other moments the reader will be incredulous. Could so many convoluted plans to attack an innocent employee actually have been carried out without interference and without discovery by someone decent who could have intervened to prevent it? As a Jew, I know what it is to be called names, to be preyed upon, and to be insulted and humiliated by the police and employers, and by ignorant, intolerant people who may have had sway over me, but I never experienced it as consistently as the character in the book nor only in my own life. My children and my husband experienced it as well. However, there were times of respite from the anti-Semitism. In this book, the racism seems constant and pervasive.
I do disagree, though, with the terms systemic racism being used here, because it was not systemic, it was pervasive, though, in her field. It was a select group of employees and superiors in the organization who harbored the racist thoughts. There were others who did not. I don’t believe in using such a broad brush to paint the picture. Yes, it took years to stop it, but there were people there who wanted to stop it, so it was not systemic. It was not bred in the organization. It was bred in some of the people there.
I believe the authors intended to prove that there was racism, and they did that explicitly with the examples provided. They did not, however, leave me with a hope for unity, as it ended with the quote from the book that signaled more to come; the quote referring to the character after a problem was solved and she thought things would proceed smoothly, was “or so I thought’ creating doubt about a positive outcome that would be long lasting!
I really wish it had been non-fiction and documented to make it more credible. I note that today, proof is always being demanded. However, I do not think that anyone could make up some of the horrible moments in Ebony’s life. Calling the main character Ebony and her antagonist Karen, which some people maintain is a pejorative for white women, also gave me pause, but discrimination plays a starring role in this book, and it is hard not to say it gets the Academy Award. It is definitely out there.