Educating Yourself About Anti-Racism Part 1: With tributes to Vernon Jordan and my Uncle Jeff Allen and a brief discussion about anti-racism and the UK Royals

This is The ARCC of Change with Donzel Leggett, a podcast from the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition, an organization dedicated to eradicating racism and hate and spreading anti-racism. Listen as Donzel talks about the relevant topics that will inspire you and help build your capability to take action and change the world. Because none of us are doing enough as long as racism still exists. And now, here's your host, Donzel Leggett.

DONZEL LEGGETT: Hello and welcome to the 8th episode of The ARCC of Change with Donzel Leggett. In this episode, I will continue to detail the ARCC process for personal transformation by moving to Step 2, educating yourself about anti-racism. I'll also discuss important lessons learned about anti-racism from the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle interview with Oprah Winfrey. And finally, I will honor two of the most influential figures in my life who recently were lost to us. The legendary executive and civil rights activist Vernon Jordan, and my uncle and role model, Jeffrey Allen. Now let's get started with our show.

So I am Donzel Leggett, host of The ARCC of Change podcast and founder of the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition, or ARCC. ARCC is a coalition of dedicated people committed to eradicating racism and spreading anti-racism throughout our communities, our countries, and the world. This is The ARCC of Change. Now, recently at ARCC, we've been working on our strategic plan. And in so doing, we have refined our vision statement, which is that our vision at ARCC is to build a racism-free world. And our mission is to inspire, educate, and support you to transform yourself and your network to take action to be anti-racist and to spread anti-racism.

Now, back in episode three, I introduced you to the ARCC process for transforming yourself and your network to spread anti-racism. The first step is erasing your ignorance about racism and hate. The second step is educating yourself about anti-racism. And the third step is about building the character and confidence to stand up, speak out, and take action to spread anti-racism.

In episode four, I shared my anti-racism journey, a holistic example of how this process of transforming yourself to be anti-racist comes to life. Then in episode 5, "Erasing Ignorance Part 1," I started going step by step with that transformation process. I then explained how a then 9-year-old Donzel rationalized that racism made no moral or common sense and failed the reasonableness test. After honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a special episode 6, I concluded my coverage of Step 1 in the ARCC transformation process, erasing ignorance about racism, with episode 7 where I explained that racism not only fails the reasonableness test and makes no moral or common sense, but I also explained how racism also fails the test of history and science and that the concept of race itself is a fraud. Now, in this episode, I will continue our step-by-step learning journey through the ARCC process of personal and network transformation by moving to Step 2 in our process, educating yourself about anti-racism. Now, as I've mentioned before, anti-racism differs from not being a racist or non-racism because it is not only about being conscious of overt racism and rejecting it, but also the harder to see covert racism and the structural and systemic racism that is built into our society. And this is the critical part. Then deciding to speak out, stand up and take action to wake people up to the pervasiveness and the insidiousness of racism and to actively work to break down these structures and to eradicate racism and go further by reversing its destructive and devastating effects.

Now, I'm going to get into the specifics of the definition of anti-racism a little more later in this episode. But first, I think the best way to bring anti-racism to life is to tell you a story of my learnings from the legendary Vernon Jordan and how he perfectly personified being anti-racist.

The ARCC of Change podcast is brought to you by the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition. Visit us at https://joinarcc.org/(opens in new tab) to learn more about ARCC and join our movement.

DONZEL LEGGETT: On March 1st, 2021, the world lost an icon of civil rights, a trailblazer in the business world, and a giant in the political arena. But most of all, Vernon Jordan was a champion for anti-racism. I met Mr. Vernon Jordan in January 2015 when he came to Minneapolis to be the keynote speaker at the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Breakfast. I was the chair for the event, so I had actually met him in the fall of 2014, but via conference call to prepare for the breakfast. But when he came to speak at the event, I got to spend real one-on-one time with him over the day and a half that he was in town and got to really know him well. He told me to stay in touch and let him know if I ever came to New York or to Washington, D.C. Anytime for us to connect and chat over a drink or a cocktail or even dinner. A few months later, when I realized I was going to be in New York City for a meeting, I called Vernon's office to see if we could arrange a meeting at his New York City office. He quickly responded and modified his schedule to accommodate my meeting. He was at the time a senior partner at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which is a Dallas firm, but that has a DC office. And he had an office there in DC, but he was also a managing partner at Lazard Investment Bank in New York City, split time between both locations. And at this time he was late 70s, early 80s, but very, very, very active and very, very, very sharp. And this particular week that I was gonna be in town, again, he made sure that he was gonna be at his Lazard office at 30 Rockefeller Center.

Now, it's really funny to think back now how uninformed I was about New York and about the social scene and things like that there. Because even though his office was at 30 Rockefeller Center, it never dawned on me what that building was. I never really thought about it. I remember telling the cab driver, "Hey, do you know where 30 Rockefeller Center is?" He looked at me and said, "Well, of course I do." And I didn't think anything of it. Then when he dropped me off at the building and let me out of the cab, I still was not really sure, so I asked this guy on the street, "Hey man, can you tell me where 30 Rockefeller Center is?" And the guy looked at me like it was crazy, like I was joking or something like that, and then he just pointed to the building and just kind of laughed. I didn't really get the joke until I opened the door and saw a huge picture of Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show, and all these other NBC stars. It finally dawned on me, ah, 30 Rock. Now I get it. What a cool building. What a cool place to have your office. When I went up the elevator and got off and Mr. Jordan was there waiting for me, he never said anything about his office being in the NBC building or gave me any feeling or body language that this was a big deal or anything like that. It was just welcoming me to come visit him, like old friends, like a mentor, welcoming someone very, very graciously. We were only scheduled for about 30 minutes for our meeting, but he spent over two hours with me and I was in heaven just listening, marveling, laughing, and learning from this legend. Vernon said that he had a few gifts for me and he handed me a signed copy of his biography, Vernon Can Read!, and a copy, I think it's called An Evening with Vernon Jordan, which is, it was kind of a portrait documentary interview style of his life, about an hour long program. I would highly recommend reading the book and watching that program. He then took me through his own personal description of his life story. Most of it was in the book and on the program that was public. But there were some private stories that did not show up in there. All I can tell you is it was an incredible ride and discussion. I learned a tremendous amount. But above all else, it was very, very funny listening to him. He was a very funny man. He told me about growing up in Georgia in the late 30s and early 40s during Jim Crow. He told me about being the only black student at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and how he attended really because he got a scholarship. He had never really been anywhere that far north. He had never been to Indiana. He'd never been to Greencastle. The first time he stepped on that campus is when he got off the train his freshman year and arrived on campus. He told me a story of how he decided to name his book Vernon Can Read!, which is a funny story that I'll go through because it's kind of both funny and sad at the same time, but really a microcosm of what Vernon was all about. He tells a story that I think it was the summer of his sophomore year, after his sophomore year at DePauw, he was hired as a summer intern at a white insurance company in Georgia, I think in Atlanta. And the company hired him just based on his resume, seeing that he went to DePauw. When he showed up for his internship, they realized pretty quickly that they had quote unquote made a mistake. And they still wanted to honor the internship, but he couldn't stay in that office. And so they made some calls and arranged for him to have a desk at a black insurance agency who unfortunately had less business because of Jim Crow law of businesses. White insurance office businesses could sell to black businesses, but black businesses could not sell to white. So you just had limited opportunities. And so he was bored. I mean, here's this really smart guy looking forward to an internship. And there wasn't as a lot of work to do. He hated the work as well, you know, kind of trying to sell insurance policies and things like that. So he said he talked to his mother and his mother was able to get him a job as a chauffeur. Kind of a summer chauffeur for one of the most prominent men in town, a member of the white elite class in Georgia, the former mayor of Atlanta. Actually, his name was Robert Maddox. At the time, Mr. Maddox was the president of the First National Bank of Atlanta and the American Banking Association. So a very, very, very important man known very, very well with a lot of contacts throughout Georgia. He would drive Mr. Maddox early in the day, pick him up in the morning, take him on his daily routine, any meetings he had, then afternoon lunch. But by early afternoon, they were back at the home of Mr. Maddox. Mr. Maddox had a routine of taking an early afternoon nap. And so when the driving was done for the day, Vernon would stay on property because later that evening, he would actually become the butler or take on butler duties. So, you know, between driving and the butler duties while Mr. Maddox napped, there was a lot of kind of free time, you know, for Vernon. And so Vernon noticed that Mr. Maddox had this great library, as you can imagine, you know, this banker, former mayor. So Vernon started using the time to read in the library. He never saw anyone in there, so he started going in there and reading. One day, he tells the story that Mr. Maddox came down from his nap early. And he saw Vernon in the library, and he was really, really surprised to see him. He asked Vernon, "What are you doing here?" And Vernon replied, "Hey, I'm reading, sir." And Maddox said, "I didn't know you could read." And Vernon said, "Well, I'm a sophomore in college, sir." And Maddox replied incredulously, "You go to college, Vernon?" And Vernon said, "Yes." He told him that he attended DePauw College in Indiana. Maddox then said, "You go to school with white students?" And Vernon said, "Yes." Maddox then asked, "Well, okay, what are you studying to be, a teacher or preacher?" And Vernon replied, "Neither, sir. I'm preparing to go to law school to be a lawyer." And quickly Maddox replied, "N-words aren't supposed to be lawyers." Later that evening, Vernon was telling me that as he was helping serve dinner, kind of in his butler role now, to the entire Maddox family. Maddox, he had two sons, I think. Both his sons were there. His daughters-in-law were there. His wife. So the whole family. He says, as they started serving dinner, Maddox stands up and says, "Hey, I want everyone's attention. I have an announcement to make. Vernon can read." And everybody looked at each other. Nobody said one word. Actually, the kids had interviewed him. They knew he had been going to college. They knew he was at DePauw. They obviously knew he could read. So they didn't say one word. Maddox then goes on to say, "And he goes to college with white children." Maddox then said in an exasperated way, according to Vernon, "Vernon, I knew all this was coming and I'm glad I won't be here when it does." Vernon told me, he said, "Donzel, if you think Maddox eventually kind of changed his ways, became enlightened or anything like that," he said, "think again." He said years later when Maddox was older and he was under a nurse's care, the news came on showing Charlayne Hunter who was one of the two first black students to integrate the University of Georgia. She was being escorted into classes for the first time through an angry mob of white racists, screaming, yelling, throwing things. The nurse said to Maddox, "Look there on the TV, Mr. Maddox. It's your old chauffeur on the news. He's escorting that black girl into the University of Georgia." Without missing a beat, Mr. Maddox looked up and said, "I always knew that N-word was up to no good." So Vernon told me this story and Vernon said, "That was the Georgia I came from. That's the work that we're still trying to change today. The words might be different. But the structures that are in place, the racist systems are in place. We still have to work against these."

Vernon then told me how he went on to attend and graduate from Howard Law School. He then joined a civil rights law firm in Atlanta that was focused on integrating the University of Georgia. Of course, they won that case where two students were admitted and he escorted Charlayne Hunter into classes. He then joined the NAACP as their Georgia field secretary. Now, this was the same role that his friend and mentor Medgar Evers had in Mississippi. And it wasn't too long after Jordan took on the role in Georgia of driving what we now call anti-racism that Medgar Evers was assassinated in his driveway right in front of his family. Vernon told me how he felt when Medgar was killed. And that you would think there would be fear, he said, "Yes, there's a little fear," but he said, "it more so motivated me more than ever to keep up the work that men, brave men like Medgar were doing every single day, registering people to vote, helping to break down systemic racism." You know, anti-racism was not a specific term at that time. Even in 2015, when I was meeting with Mr. Jordan, we didn't really use that term. But when you think about the work that Medgar Evers died for, and that Vernon Jordan was committed to keep going, that's what it was. That's what it is today. Anti-racism. He told me that after this, in his work with the NAACP, he then moved to Southern Regional Council and then to Voter Education Project, all again trying to further the work of anti-racism. Then in 1970, Vernon became the youngest executive director of the United Negro College Fund. Then in 1971, he became the youngest president of the National Urban League, where he stayed for 10 years. There were a lot of people in the black community who disagreed with him leaving the UNCF so quickly to take that Urban League job. They thought that he was needed more at the UNCF. But Vernon told me what he told them. He felt that the Urban League was an opportunity to do something differential. He felt that it was so critical to work as part of the Urban League to provide an avenue to influence corporate America. And to also have avenues in to the higher levels of politics in this country to drive better access for African-Americans in business and to improve the economic conditions, which he felt that if they didn't improve, we weren't going to get anywhere with social justice and racial justice. As long as in his view, we did not have a voice in corporate America. That time, I don't think there were there had never been a CEO of a Fortune 500 company that was black. There were very few of any board members who were black on Fortune 500 companies. So his view was unless we get voice in these highest ranks of corporate America, the highest ranks of government, the promise of civil rights will continue to be denied. He felt strongly that we needed access to drive real economic change. Then he moved into corporate America in 1981 as an executive and board member. Another move, he told me that he got a lot of criticism, a lot of criticism from the black community. But as Vernon explained to me, it was very consistent with his view that we needed change economically, significant change. And to have that economic change, we needed access. We need voices at the table. Eradicating racism could not just be a social endeavor. It had to be an economic endeavor. It's what Vernon told me. Of all the places in America that still are not integrated, and there's a lot of them, the upper levels of corporate America is one of the most segregated and exclusive in this country. In fact, even today, today, there have only been 19 black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies ever, ever. We needed then and we need now people in the room who will stand up, speak out and take action for anti-racism.

In 1981, he resigned from the National Urban League to take a position as legal counsel for the Washington, D.C. office of that Dallas law firm I talked about, Akin Gump. And in January 2000, he became a senior managing director with Lazard, the investment banking firm. He became one of the first African-American board members of several major U.S. corporations, including American Express, JCPenney, Dow Jones & Company, Sara Lee, Corning, Xerox, RJR Nabisco, among others. Again, this was controversial to some, especially in the black community, those who believe that civil rights activists should not be involved in business. They certainly shouldn't go and be an executive at a business or be part of a board of a major Fortune 500 corporation. But he explained again that this is exactly what they should be doing. Because for us to reverse that structural racism and systemic economic barriers that are locking many black people in poverty and excluding black leaders from getting to the C-suite and from being on boards, we have to be part of that system to reverse it. We need to be at the table.

He also talked to me about the attempt on his life when he was shot by a racist white supremacist in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1980 and President Jimmy Carter and then presidential challenger Ronald Reagan each visited him separately in the hospital. And although he wasn't happy he was shot, he was proud that he was one of the very first stories that ever was broadcasted on the fledgling news channel CNN. Even though he was friendly with President Reagan, he talked to me about challenging him on the racist effects of Reaganomics. Access, because of his status as the leader of the Urban League. And then moving into corporate America, he had access to people like President Reagan and was able to make statements and educate them on things that others did not have that opportunity. He talked about his relationships with former President Clinton and his role on President Clinton's transition team. He talked to me about his role in the campaign in 2004 for presidential candidate John Kerry. He again explained how all of this related back to his commitment to furthering civil rights, racial justice. And again, we didn't have this term, but what really was anti-racism. And that it was time for younger folks like you, Donzel, he said, to take the lead and recognize that as times change, challenges change. And that what we have to recognize is that the bar can't stay the same. We have to continually raise the bar. He said, "That's what I was doing when I took that UNCF role. That's what I was doing when I took that Urban League role. That's what I was doing when I went into private practice in corporate America. That's what I was doing when I joined those boards of directors. And why I got so engaged with insider politics. You have to continuously raise the bar to defeat something as deep and heinous as racism. And we can't all come at it from the same place. We have to find many different avenues. And business and economics is an avenue we've ignored much too long."

He reminded me about the speech that he gave in Minneapolis for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Breakfast. I remember when we first had that prep call and discussed the topic of the speech and what he should focus on. I told him that I was noticing a divide growing between kind of people my age group, middle-aged African-Americans and older, who had grown up kind of after the civil rights movement and had seen a very different America from the one that our parents grew up in, what they described to us. And that all led up to the election of President Barack Obama twice, not once, but twice. And that was a kind of a thing that I thought we were seeing improving race relations. While younger African-Americans like my son were telling me that, "Hey, things are getting worse. This is the worst it's ever been." And I remember telling Vernon, "It's hard for me to understand that. How is that possible? How could they have this perspective that it's the worst it's ever been? How could it be the worst ever when we literally have a black president? When I'm a vice president of a Fortune 500 company, I'm not the only one. And where you, Vernon, are idolized around the country and around the world as an icon of business and the kingmaker." Literally, some people called him that in D.C. So I said, "You know, what would be great for you to talk about? What if you could tell your story about you growing up, the America you grew up in through the Jim Crow South and segregation, all the lynchings, the assassinations of Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others. And how there's no way that things are worse today than they were then." He listened to me very intently. I remember on the phone, he just said, "I got it. I got it." The morning of the breakfast, I met Vernon and noticed he had a large binder with him. Very large. I figured that this was just his speech printed in large font. He's an older guy, so he could read it. The breakfast program was broadcast live on public television, had a very tight TV schedule to stay on with the morning programming. Vernon's speech started with pleasantries to those in the audience, those in attendance, then a few funny stories, some observations about the current climate, the legacy of President Obama, before he started to get into the meat of his message. But by this time, we were already 25 minutes in to what was supposed to be only a 30-minute speech. As he continued, the TV broadcast director, who was kneeling on the floor in front of the stage, was looking very nervously at Vernon. He looked at his watch. Then he tried to get Vernon's attention. He was waving his hands. And he was trying to tell Vernon to, "You got to start to close." Vernon paid no attention to him. So finally, the guy mouthed at me, you know, that Vernon was going long. You know, can you tell him he's going long? And I looked back at the director and I just said, "Hey, it's okay. You know, it'll just be a little bit longer." Five minutes later, the director now is frantic. He's frantically waving his arms on the floor, motioning to Vernon, who again is ignoring him. So then again, he looks at me in a very frenetic way. He's motioning, pointing to his watch, shaking his head frenetically, put his hand on his head. "There's no time. There's no time." I then looked at the binder that Vernon was reading his speech from and realized that he wasn't even halfway through it. I looked back at the producer and mouthed to him. You know, I just said, "How much time? How much time?" He just declared, "There is no time. No time. He has to wrap up. He has to wrap up." So I gently touched Vernon on his coat sleeve. He stopped speaking and he looked down at me. And I whispered to him, I said, "Mr. Jordan, they say that you're out of time and you got to wrap it up." He gave me a funny look and started shaking his head. Then he looked out at the audience and said, "They say that I'm out of time and that I need to wrap it up. But I came here to say something. And I'm not sitting down until I've said it." I looked at the director and I just mouthed, "Hey, there's your answer." Vernon's speech was so impassioned, so insightful. He bridged the gap that I had been talking about between the civil rights era, kind of the Gen X era that I'm from, to the current generation by explaining that we at one time faced great walls of racism everywhere in this country. Literally physical and mental walls. Literal walls, figurative walls, whatever way you want to look at it. Obvious walls and barriers, many legal. But others that were unwritten but were well known and ingrained in society. He said that the civil rights movement broke down many of these walls. And the generation that followed, my generation, didn't see these walls. We had heard so much about them, we didn't see them. So it felt to us like a changed world. But he said the rubble from these walls, like if you implode a building for construction, the building isn't standing anymore, but there's rubble everywhere. He said that rubble was left behind by all those walls and they're still there, still on the field. Some people learned how to navigate that rubble. But as time went on, it became clear that this rubble was trapping millions of black and brown people in despair and creating cover for others of ill intent to hide and create traps to perpetuate racism. And still for others who didn't want to have to see the reality, the rubble allowed things to be hidden forever. For them to pretend that racism wasn't there. So yes, the great walls of Jim Crow segregation, economic and educational exclusion, and many others of those walls are gone for some. But for most black and brown people, the rubble is still there, trapping them into what feels like worse conditions than before. And creating a breeding ground for racism to flourish again. Implausible deniability for the non-racist to not have to do anything. For many, trying to escape the rubble is like climbing a mountain. A steep mountain. With no safety rope and each inch up the mountain takes deliberate strength, time, focus, patience, blood, sweat, tears. But one misstep can drop you hundreds of feet in a second. We all must recognize that the rubble is there and muster the courage to clear it to eradicate racism once and for all. All of us who have escaped the rubble must take action to clear it. White people in particular must take action to clear the rubble. Corporate America must take action to clear the rubble. The government must take action to clear the rubble. This is what Vernon Jordan stood for and the message that he was delivering that day. This is the difference between not being a racist and being an anti-racist. It is not only about seeing the rubble of racism, but about taking action to clear the rubble, to eradicate racism and reverse its historic, negative, devastating effects. This is anti-racism. This is what Vernon Jordan was all about. This is what ARCC is all about.

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DONZEL LEGGETT: As I explained earlier, my definition of anti-racism is that it's not only about being conscious of overt racism and rejecting it, but also the harder to see covert racism, the structural and systemic racism that is built into our society. And this is the critical part, as I said before, then deciding to speak out, stand up and take action to wake people up to the pervasiveness of racism and actively work to break down these structures and eradicate racism and reverse its destructive and devastating effects.

It should be clear that Mr. Vernon Jordan was the personification of anti-racism as I defined it. But let's explore the definition of anti-racism a little further to help ensure it is clear to you. In my opinion, the best book on the specific topic of anti-racism is How to Be an Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. Dr. Kendi, who was included in Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2020, is an anti-racist activist. He's also a historian of race and discriminatory policy in America and is currently the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. Now, Dr. Kendi defines an anti-racist in his book, How to Be an Antiracist, as one who is supporting an anti-racist policy through their actions or expressing an anti-racist idea. And he defines anti-racism as a similarly powerful collection of anti-racist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by anti-racist ideas. And we'll continue to come back to Dr. Kendi's book in subsequent episodes. And I highly recommend that you read his book. But again, let me provide you with examples of anti-racism versus not racism.

We just had International Women's Day earlier this week. And I decided to do a social media post about how ARCC is living the change that we want to be in terms of anti-racism and anti-hate, which anti-misogyny falls in that category, and how we want to be a leader in terms of women in leadership. I shared that women make up 60% of our board of directors, 67% of our board executives, and 85% of our department directors. Now, this is a great example of being anti-misogynist. What I didn't put in the post is what we're doing to live our anti-racism value as well. Remember, anti-racism differs from not racist in that we're taking actions, speaking out, standing up to reverse the effects of racism and of non-representation. At ARCC, people of color make up 67% of our board, one third of our board executives, and almost half of our department directors. At ARCC, we have taken action to role model anti-racism and anti-hate. We are doing our part to remove the rubble. So now that we understand anti-racism a little bit better, it is again very important to clarify the difference between anti-racism and not being a racist. And to show how not being a racist is actually not that much different from being a racist. And in many cases, worse. Because it shields the systemic, structural, and insidiousness of underground and indirect racism by hiding it behind the smiling face of the not racist.

According to Dr. Ibram Kendi, the most threatening racist movement is not the alt-right's unlikely drive for a white ethnostate, but the regular American's drive for a race-neutral one. This statement is not that much different than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote about the white moderate from almost 50 years ago. In his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Dr. King wrote that, "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the white citizen's counselor or the Ku Klux Klan-er, but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice, who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice." Look, it's a tried and true way for those who don't really want things to change to claim plausible deniability by saying they are not racist. By avoiding doing things that are covertly racist or also trying to avoid being tied to things that are covertly racist, but who clearly will not speak out, stand up, and take action for anti-racism. This is even more painful when this comes from family, friends, and those you thought were supposed to be on your side. Here's an example that played out in front of the entire world just last week. This past Sunday, there was an interview that aired on national television, available to global media, that made ripple effects in which Oprah Winfrey interviewed United Kingdom's Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, the former Duchess of Sussex. In this interview, the couple described what some have called classic definition of indirect racism. Attempted to be masked by a facade of "we are not racist." In other words, a perfect view of what not racist looks like and how truly damaging it is. Meghan described story after story that surprised even Oprah. Ranging from tabloid spreading stories that Meghan was rude and mean to staff to paint a picture that Meghan was a bully. To stories that members of the family had questioned Harry about how dark his unborn son's skin was going to be. Meghan talked about how the family wanted her to turn back herself by 50% because she was outshining Princess Kate and others. And she also corrected a story in which she had reportedly made Princess Kate cry, when in actuality, Kate had made Meghan cry. She described feeling isolated and unsupported by the family, even though the Queen treated her warmly and kindly. She asked for help from the family, and instead, she had to go to HR. Think about that. She had to go to HR. Because she was being mistreated by her family. She even admitted to having suicidal thoughts.

Finally, Harry and Meghan decided to leave after they continued to receive no support. And were told by family members, "We all had to go through it. You have to tough it out just like we did." The family still refused to acknowledge the clear racism that was being targeted at Harry and Meghan that none of them had to face. None of them had to face what Harry and Meghan were facing. And they knew that. Instead of supporting them, their titles were stripped. Their security detail was removed. And this was while they were continuing to be targeted by tabloids and were actually receiving death threats.

Decisions like this have to be approved. I'm talking about removing titles, taking away your security detail, have to be approved all the way up through the Queen.

Now, even if you believe that the royal family itself is not racist, it is clear that they are also not anti-racist. They still have yet to stand up, speak out, and take action on behalf of Harry and Meghan. Even after over 100 members of Parliament stood up, spoke out, and took action against the media for what they clearly saw as targeted racist attacks on Meghan. And yet not one royal family member said one word. Even the co-host of Good Morning Britain, Alex Beresford, stood up, spoke out and took action against his co-host, Piers Morgan, by confronting him on air after the interview with Oprah for his role in the relentless media attacks on Meghan.

Of course, Piers Morgan, like most bullies, when confronted, retreated, walked off the set. Then, he decided he's leaving the show.

Prior to the Oprah interview, the UK royal family said and did nothing. Following the uproar after the interview, they issued a simple statement saying that they were saddened.

Prince William, Harry's brother and second in line to the throne, later said, "We are not a racist family." Whether they're racist or not is hard to say because that would require a determination of what's going on in their heads. But what cannot be denied is again that the UK royal family is clearly not anti-racist. Because that's about action. It's not about what's going on in your mind. Anti-racism is about action. Because like I said, anti-racism differs from not being racist. Because it's not just about being conscious of overt racism and rejecting it. It's also about the harder to see covert racism, the structural, the systemic racism that's built into our society. The attacks, the racial attacks by tabloids. This is all things that not only have to be noticed, but then a decision has to be made to speak out. To stand up and take action. To wake people up to the pervasiveness of this kind of racism. And to actively work to break down all the structures. All the damage that's being done. To eradicate racism. And reverse its destructive and devastating effects.

This is what Harry and Meghan said hurt them most. And what finally opened Harry's eyes to the true nature of his family and his privilege and the actual racism that was unleashed, the severe damage that's been done by, like his brother said, not being racist.

The bottom line is this. Harry's family did not stand up for him. They did not stand up for Meghan. They did not stand up for Archie. They did not support him. As Prince Harry himself said, they did not have my back.

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DONZEL LEGGETT: I'm so fortunate that I have a strong family support structure. But sadly, one of my most ardent and passionate supporters in my family passed away recently. My uncle, Jeffrey Lance Allen. Now, Uncle Jeff was only about 11 years older than me. Old enough where I couldn't really hang out with him much when I was little. But when I got older, we were close enough to do a lot of things together. He left home in Key West and moved to Indiana not long after he graduated high school. So at that time, I was only about six years old. So again, we didn't do much together when I was little. Not that I can remember. When I became a teenager, though, high schooler, I would go up to Indiana for the summer to visit my family there. I had Uncle Jeff, but I also had Aunt Sheila and another uncle, Uncle Kirk. I would spend a few weekends with Uncle Jeff when he wasn't working. He worked some pretty rotating type hours at a hospital. So he didn't have a lot of weekends off. Unlike Uncle Kirk, Uncle Jeff, again, was closer to my age. So there were a lot of the things that he liked to do that I liked to do. So we got to do a lot of fun things that a high school guy would want to get going and doing. And he seemed kind of larger than life to me. He was always, man, in just great, great shape. He ran all the time. He worked out every day. So we got to do that together. I was big for my age and a big kid. So he was willing to take me with him to places that normally men would be. So we'd go and play basketball with his friends, play racquetball. He even took me to play stickball a couple times. So we did so many fun things. He would also talk to me about things that you get to hear from only like a male mentor. He talked to me about the importance of physical fitness, not just exercise, but eating right. And how that could make a difference if I wanted to be a good athlete. The conditioning was the one thing that I could control. Other things maybe not, but that I owned and I could control. He talked to me about the responsibility of being a husband and a father. And what he was experiencing. What he loved about it. What he would do different. Things he would tell me to think about as I got older. He talked to me about the importance of being frugal, saving money and managing your finances, knowing exactly where your money's going. On the fun side, he introduced me to the music of Bob Marley, whom I didn't know much about at all at the time. But today he's my favorite artist of all time because of Uncle Jeff. Uncle Jeff was a hero in my eyes, a role model, a real role model. I mean, there's so many things that he taught me. And after I graduated high school, I attended Purdue University in Indiana, in West Lafayette, Indiana, where Uncle Jeff lived in Indianapolis. This wasn't that far. He lived in Anderson for a period of time as well. But either way, we're talking an hour to a two-hour drive. And I was at Purdue to play college football. And I would go down to Indy almost every weekend, Indianapolis, and and, you know, again, Uncle Jeff was on this schedule, this kind of 12-hour schedule. A lot of hospitals work. So he didn't have every weekend off. So usually it was like maybe every third weekend he'd have off. So, you know, I would always try to be with him when he had those weekends off. And it was always so very special. And I tell you, he always made a point to continuously encourage me to be successful. He had been an athlete in high school, and I think he felt like he could have gone further, but he didn't. He had to go to work, had to do different things. So he saw my college football career as a chance for him to kind of live some missed opportunities, you know, through me. In sports, you know, you don't know much about in black families. Sports is very, very big, especially with black men and boys in particular. Now, this is partly due to the fact that, you know, because of racism, blocking black men in particular from a lot of different things. And because of people like Jackie Robinson, baseball, and Jack Johnson in boxing, and people like Bill Russell and others in basketball, and Jim Brown in football, all these people shattered any racial inferiority complexes. All that stuff was gone by the time I was coming up. And so the view was no matter how racist people are, no matter how racist the system is, it may be ingrained in other aspects of society, but you cannot be denied when it comes to sports. Because if you're the best on the field, if you're the best in the ring, if you're the best on the court, it's very difficult to deny you and cheat you. It's the one area where we, as black men, can negate racism, discrimination, and prejudice. And that's why so many of us spend so much of our time focused on sports. So there's a lot of energy that goes forth there. And certainly Uncle Jeff was no different as an uncle wanting me to really get better and be good and take sports seriously. And sometimes sports kind of takes over for school. It kind of has a higher priority. A lot of people want to know why that is. Because many of us have experienced, I haven't as much, but many of us have experienced that you could be the smartest with the best grades, but still get cheated out of the best job. Because of your skin color. So that's why again, sports is so highly prioritized in black households. But Uncle Jeff always encouraged me to not only strive to be good at football, but to be a great student athlete. Because he felt there was something in me that could beat the system. I remember him telling me, "You won't be denied. They can't hold you back." And, you know, it was still tough for me to internalize that. I still did the work. I was a good student. I've talked about that in podcasts before. But sometimes you need that male role model there with you who continues to encourage you. I remember one weekend in particular after the 1988 season had finished up and I had played really well during most of that season, but our team did not. We had a losing record. We ended the season poorly. And I remember Uncle Jeff had come to pick me up for the weekend in Indianapolis at his house. And I was feeling down because, again, we had this losing record. I ended the year poorly. Our last game, we just got destroyed by Indiana, our biggest rival. I played the worst game, probably the second worst game of my career. I had some bad games. That was probably the second worst game of my career. I got bitched at halftime. And I also thought that, man, I had a chance to be all Big Ten. I thought I did, but I kind of realized at those last couple of games, I probably blew it. And I officially realized that I didn't make it and I didn't get honorable mention. And so I was feeling a little bit in the dumps. So Uncle Jeff came to get me and during the car ride back, I was pretty quiet. I didn't have a lot to say. I remember we stopped at a burger, a Steak 'n Shake once we got to Indy. And Uncle Jeff asked me, man, why are you so quiet, man? Why are you sitting down? And I told him that I just felt like, you know, I let him down. And I let the family down. That, you know, our team was bad. We were losing season. And me individually, you know, I ended on a down note. I said I was doing well. And I just didn't finish it off, man. And I didn't make all Big Ten. I didn't even make honorable mention. I just feel like, man, I just didn't live up to what you were expecting and others. And he just said right away, "What were your grades like this semester?" I told him they were good. They were real good. And then I thought about, you know, I had this piece of paper and I didn't think much of it, but I handed it to him. And when he opened it, it was a press release that the sports information director had given me earlier that day that said that I had been named to the academic All-America team. When Uncle Jeff read it, a big smile came across his face. And he said, "You didn't think this was a big deal, man?" I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. He stood up and he said loudly so everybody in the Steak 'n Shake could hear him, "My nephew is an All-American and now we're going to get steak and lobster. See y'all." And we left and he took me to this really nice place and we celebrated. And he made me feel like that I had just become king of the world. I accomplished something great. And I should have looked at it that way, but I didn't until he made it feel that way. And he told me as we were celebrating, he said, "Donnie, make sure you stay on this path, man. Don't let anybody take you off this path." And I did stay on that path. After I graduated and started my own family, my own career, I would talk to Uncle Jeff four or five times a year. We didn't talk all the time. But when we did talk, it was usually about a two to three hour conversation, sometimes four. I remember he would call me sometimes on his break when he was at work and he'd say, "I only got 10 minutes to talk." And then two and a half hours later, I'd be like, "Dude, how are you taking these two and a half hour breaks, man?" And he would just laugh. He said, "Man, we cover for each other." I would always end every conversation though with, "Thanks Uncle Jeff for everything you did for me. I remember everything you taught me and I would not be here without you." And he would always say, "Donnie, thank you because you did more for me than you will ever know." He had to get that last word in every time. You know, I wonder what if all children or young people especially those of color, had this kind of support and encouragement. You know, now I was talking about Meghan and Harry earlier, and I'm not a British royal, but I did marry someone from outside my so-called race. Remember, race was made up to justify colonialism and slavery. So I don't like perpetuating it by using that term. So I'll just say my wife, she's white and she's of European descent. So like Meghan and Harry, I know a thing or two about racism directed toward an interracial couple and how the reaction of your family is such a critically important factor. I met my wife at Purdue and the first person in my family that she met actually was my, I think he was 11 years old, my little 11-year-old cousin who had come to spend a few weeks with me during the summer. And, you know, I didn't really count on his judgment or what he thought because he just thought I was cool anyway because I was his older cousin. Plus, if I bought him something good to eat, got him a little, you know, a little nice shirt or something like that, he was happy. He was cool. So from his standpoint, everything was great. So the first adult in my family to meet my future wife though, was Uncle Jeff. When he came to pick up my little cousin to take him back to Indy. And, you know, as you got from this podcast, you know, Uncle Jeff was like my hero. So, you know, what he said wasn't just going to be important to me. It was going to be, you know, the thing, you know, this was going to matter because he was my role model, my hero. He's someone I valued. Everything that he said, all the advice he gave me. So again, his reaction, his opinion would be critical to me. You know, he wasn't just my uncle. He was like a best friend. The guy I wanted to be like. The guy I respected. Very few people I love like I love Uncle Jeff. So he drove up from Indianapolis to Purdue to pick up my little cousin and bring him back. And while he was there, I said, "Hey, you know, let's go over. I want to introduce you to someone." So I took him over to Tracy's apartment to meet her. And I told him, you know, on the way over, I said, "Hey, man, of all the girls I've dated, Tracy is different, I think. I really like her. I think she's a really good girl. I said, I think I'm getting serious about her. You know, but I said, just so you know, she is white. Just want to make sure you're aware." And when he met Tracy, he greeted her so warmly, so graciously. She was nervous. I could tell, but she calmed down as soon as Uncle Jeff gave her a big hug. He talked to her with this genuine charm that he had and he engaged her in real conversation. You know, sometimes you talk to people and they're just kind of giving you lip service and you could tell, you know, but there's other times you talk to people and they're really, really hanging on everything you say. And that's how he made Tracy feel. Everything she said, he soaked in, you know, and really paid 100% attention to her. You know, when she went back inside and he and I drove back to my apartment to drop me off, he told me she seemed like a really, really good person. But more importantly, he said, "I trust your judgment." He said, "You might have some problems with some other people in the family, but I got your back and I'll stand up for you." Now, this was so impactful to me because he could have just said, "You won't have a problem with me." But instead, he said, "I got your back." Again, he could have said, "No problem. You don't have a problem with me. It's all good." He could have said anything like that. Those would have been the not racist response. But he went further. He committed to having my back. He committed to strongly supporting us. That is anti-racism. That is love. I was so privileged to have Uncle Jeff in my life for 53 years. I wouldn't be here without his encouragement, friendship, brotherhood, coaching, role modeling, guidance, and above all else, love. As I mentioned earlier, I would always end every conversation that I had with Uncle Jeff with, "Thanks Uncle Jeff for all you did for me. Thanks for everything you taught me. I haven't forgotten any of it. And I would not be here without you." And he would always say, "Donnie, thank you because you did more for me than I ever did for you." He always had to have that last word. Sadly, he's not here anymore to get in the last word. So I will. Thank you, Uncle Jeff, for all you did for me. Thanks for being my role model, my hero, my friend, and my uncle. I will never forget you and all that you taught me. And I will miss you forever.

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DONZEL LEGGETT: To find The ARCC of Change podcast with Donzel Leggett and learn more about the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition or ARCC, please visit us at https://joinarcc.org/(opens in new tab). You can also subscribe to The ARCC of Change with Donzel Leggett on your favorite podcast hosting sites. I greatly look forward to our next episode, an opportunity to inspire you to become part of the movement that will change the world by eradicating racism once and for all. Until next time, stay safe and continue to ask yourself, "Am I doing enough?" And remember that none of us are doing enough as long as racism and hate still exist. Thanks for listening and goodbye.

The ARCC of Change podcast with Donzel Leggett is brought to you by the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition. To learn more about ARCC, donate to our cause, and join the coalition, visit https://joinarcc.org/(opens in new tab). Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode and share this podcast to help spread our mission to change the world by ending racism once and for all. Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay safe and be inspired.