The Racialist’s Divide

I grew up near the Troost divide and attended St. Elizabeth’s grade school at 75th and Main, and the block we grew up on included mostly white Catholic and Jewish families. Between school, 3&2 baseball, days spent at Tower Park and swimming at the former Jewish Community Center, I made friends with many kids—white, black and in between. 

In high school I’d occasionally carpool with Stefan Hughes, who hailed from east of Highway 71 and whose mom, Mamie, is a social activist well known across Kansas City. Truly, a great lady. 

Stefan and I both played football at Rockhurst High, and became fast friends. I once told his mother that he and I surely must have been identical twins separated at birth and raised by different sets of parents. She scoffed at the notion, because she knew something about life in Kansas City that I had yet to comprehend. 

The kind of racism Mamie Hughes fought against for a lifetime isn’t as self-evident today as it was then. Most of the time, we speak of racism today as “systemic,” and rarely as a marker of individual behaviors. Do you really know anyone you’d describe as openly racist? I certainly don’t. This city and nation have moved forward.

As that type of racial animosity has ebbed, another has risen in  its place. Call its proponents not racists, but racialists. Their primary goal is to use race a as weapon, inviting discord and igniting controversy wherever they can. They profit, personally and professionally, by stoking the flames—or even by lighting the first match.

Which brings us to the April cover of Ingram’s and our 25th class of 40 Under Forty. While it did include several minorities, the group wasn’t sufficiently diverse for some. Among the critics was a one-time elected official whose name would be familiar to most anyone in Kansas City, and who took to Twitter with a flair for hypocrisy and, as a past 40 Under Forty honoree, a huge lack of self-awareness. 

So let’s address the criteria of the program, how selections are made and how business and communities can participate more fully and help us achieve what should be a shared goal. Since its inception, 40 Under Forty has been about business achievement. Period. We require two things for a candidate to be considered. First, a nomination. Second, an application from that nominee himself or herself. We want to hear from them personally. Hundreds of candidates are then considered each year for the 40 seats.

We take the role of selecting them extremely serious and, yes, diversity considerations are absolutely part of the process. The challenge we consistently encounter is that too few qualified minorities are nominated, and some who are nominated fail to follow through with a completed application for consideration.

Our job is to select the 40 most accomplished and well-rounded business leaders and citizens. I’m one vote on a diligent selection committee and I personally will vote for the most qualified candidate, regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion. We don’t set quotas for minority representation—everything is based on performance and merit. The subjectivity that is involved relates to candidate service on boards and commissions and overall contributions to our community. 

Various races an ethnicities have been part of the 1,000 selections since 1998. We agree: we’d like to see more diversity. But the path to achieving a higher percentage of that representation is to receive more nominations of truly qualified candidates. 

In good conscience, I can’t select anyone based on race or ethnicity over a more qualified and achieved candidate. That’s why our processes emphasize measurable achievements and metrics.

The selection committee will retain its standards and select the most qualified applicants, and we’ll pursue new avenues to solicit a candidate field that looks like Kansas City. But it can’t be a one-way street. We invite those most vocal about diversity issues to help us address it.

The sad part about the Twitter feud that erupted last month is that the original author—like every other 40 Under Forty honoree going back 25  years—has a standing invitation to nominate qualified candidates each year. Our records do not reflect a single nomination from him that would address his diversity concerns.

It’s easy to throw stones. Until his kind put down the rocks and become part of the solution, they’ll remain part of the problem. I wonder if that’s precisely what he wants. It’s apparent that racial tension remains a concern today and Ingram’s team will do what we can to provide a civil and productive forum to help unify this great city.