“… And secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity …” When these words were formed to create our Constitution, the authors almost certainly did not have their enslaved Africans in mind. This country was not created to establish justice or promote the general welfare for enslaved Africans or their descendants.

Instead, historically, this country created every possible roadblock to disadvantage, marginalize, and otherwise disrupt the upward economic mobility for African Americans. One of the ways in which this is done is through “Divide and Conquer”, a tactic that attempts to exert dominant cultural supremacy by pitting marginalized and neglected communities against each other.

The modern-day manifestation of this is in the form of struggles over the metaphorical “slice of the pie,” which represents the finite resources available within a society. For African Americans, the competition for this slice of pie is not just a struggle against systemic barriers, but it can also be a struggle within the minority community, where anti-Black sentiment is prevalent and often unaddressed. It stems from the fear that gains by one group may come at the expense of another. A recent example is the Supreme Court’s decision against affirmative action in higher education, a lawsuit partially brought about by Asian American students, and the deliberate placement of recent asylum seekers into predominantly low-income African American neighborhoods in Chicago.

How, then, does a community find healing and reconciliation when the very society in which they live is the cause of the hurt? How does healing begin for a community consistently being told to pull itself up by its bootstraps to secure its own constitutional rights while simultaneously having its boots taken away? Especially when it seems as if their boots are being purposely redistributed to another group. How does one move forward when they are pushed and held back? How does one access a larger slice of the pie and the socioeconomic benefits that the pie provides?

I believe healing starts with honesty; we must have an open dialogue amongst competing groups. We must start by undoing the myth that everyone is competing for a single slice of pie when the whole pie is available! Addressing these challenges requires a multifaceted approach that includes policy reform, community engagement, and a commitment to equity and inclusion. By understanding the dynamics of resource competition and working collaboratively, we can move towards a society where the distribution of resources is not a zero-sum game but a shared endeavor for the collective good.

Deirdre Shaw’s career has been in economic development and public health. She received her degrees from the University of Florida and Eastern Michigan University in the fields of Economics and Public Policy. Deirdre has lived and worked in South Korea, Costa Rica, and rural Arctic Alaska. She now resides in Central Florida. She loves vegan cooking and baking, hiking, traveling, and karaoke.