As we head into the summer months, now experiencing life more fully with vaccinations widely available and the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, we are grateful for having survived the past 15 months of the pandemic. At the same time, we all might know of people who didn’t survive and whose loved ones are forever changed through loss. For those we have lost, may their memories always be a blessing.
During this time, what can we say we have learned about ourselves? What have we learned about our society and where we fit in the larger world? This is a time to reflect, to remember, and eventually to share our stories with future generations.
One clear through-line is that we are all more fully aware of the racial inequities that exist in our country – in education, income, economic opportunity, criminal justice, and health care – in almost every aspect of life. This month the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation released a report, Closing the Racial Divide in the U.S. and Massachusetts: A Baseline Analysis. The report sheds light on how little progress has been made over the past 50 years to address racial inequality. The report also includes an analysis of the long-term benefits of eliminating racial inequities in the state’s economy. For example, if Black and Hispanic students in Massachusetts graduated from college at the same rate as their White peers, the increased economic activity from higher wages (resulting in more state and local tax collections) and reduced public assistance could grow more than $20 billion over a decade.
What we do at FirstGen Ahead is not only a moral imperative but an economic one as well. This has all been brought into clearer focus for a wider audience because of the pandemic.
Susan Gershenfeld, PhD
