Last year, amidst protests against police brutality and the murders of unarmed Black Americans, Pariveda embarked on a journey to take a stand against systemic racism. In December, the Anti-Racism Task Force announced a set of recommendations to address and reverse systemic racism within our walls. Today, I would like to highlight a decision made last summer to officially recognize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a company holiday. It is with great pleasure that I now have the opportunity to celebrate, with all of my fellow Fins, Dr. King’s extraordinary place in American history for the first time in my career.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 — April 4, 1968
(39 years old)
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. King was a child prodigy, skipping the 9th and 11th grades of high school and entering Morehouse College in 1944 at the age of 15. At 19, he received a bachelor’s degree in sociology. At the age of 25 in 1954, King heeded the call to religion and became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. King received his doctorate in theology from Boston University in the summer of 1955. In December of that year, the Montgomery Improvement Association’s older ministers elected Dr. King to be the Southern Christian Leadership Conference president and the boycott’s public face. This initiative was one of the sparks that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Dr. King was arrested over 30 times in 13 years for his efforts to achieve social and economic equality and break the stranglehold of Jim Crow laws and the country’s deep-rooted racism. Today, many present-day Americans undeniably view Dr. King with respect and admiration. However, after his assassination on April 4, 1968, a shocking 75% of Americans believed Dr. King brought his death upon himself. Today, many people share the same sentiment regarding police killings, civil rights, and calls for economic injustice.
The images of Dr. King that we see every year are predominantly associated with his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. However, lesser-known yet more impactful was his economic vision to address the legacy of slavery, the end of Reconstruction, and the savagery of Jim Crow laws. The part of his speech that people often forget was his statement that “African Americans had been given a blank check with Emancipation, but the check had come back marked “insufficient funds.” He went on to say, “When we come to Washington, we are coming to get our check.” Most people link his March on Washington to social justice, but the campaign sought equality before the law AND an economic bill of rights for impoverished black, brown, and white workers. During another speech in 1957, he condemned “the tragic inequalities of an economic system which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.” According to a recent study, this promise, if executed, would have infused over $3 trillion of wealth into the U.S. economy and reduced or eliminated the wealth gap.
Since this is Pariveda and we love frameworks and models, I’ll share with you a simple but most acutely accurate definition of systemic racism I have ever seen:
Systemic Racism = Prejudice (or bigotry) + Social Power + Legal Authority
This model comprises those elements at the core of the continuous fight for social and economic justice. It shows us how racism is intricately weaved into America’s fabric, combining prejudice, social power, and legal authority to create a framework whose sole purpose is to subjugate an entire class of human beings. Despite that, the model also undoubtedly shows that we can architect solutions to address this problem and many others, which gives hope for the future. Through his speeches, sermons, and letters, he depicted the problems that existed then and today in clear terms. He also painted his vision of what was possible in this country and the world with vivid language. His leadership, courage, and contributions to our nation’s history are reminders that we can get through even the most trying times like those we witnessed in the summer of 2020 and, more notably, in just the first couple of weeks of 2021.
To conclude, I will leave you with a few other quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that showcase the universal values he had fought for and that live on to this day, much of what we promote and proudly uphold within Pariveda’s EF and Findmentals to empower, enable, and treat each other with respect.
Professional:
- “Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better. ”
- “I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.”
Architect:
- “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
- “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
Leader:
- “I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right, and that is good.”
- “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
Coach:
- “Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
- “Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”
Advisor:
- “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”
- “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
Bio:
Daniel is a principal with Pariveda Solutions, specializing in digital strategy, automation, and analytics. He has helped clients across the public and private sectors achieve strategic and technology goals. With B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science and Technology Management respectively, he has become an expert in digital transformation and data strategy. Daniel is also co-founder of TEN X Lab, an accelerator investing in the growth of black-owned businesses by 10X over the next ten years.
