Meet Anti-Racism Advocate Mitch Mitchell

Hello friends,

It’s a real pleasure to introduce my friend Mitch Mitchell. He’s one of a small group of people I met when I first started blogging in 2005 who are still in touch today. Over the years I’ve followed his blog and seen his videos, and I know he’s dedicated to speaking out when he sees a wrong. Please meet Mitch…

Mitch, you’ve mentioned a pivotal experience in your childhood that made you question how Black people were treated.

I'm a military kid and in 1969, my dad had to go to Vietnam and we ended up having to go live with my grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri, and she lived in a ghetto. And obviously I wasn't used to anything like that and I was there for a year and they all hated me and they wanted to beat me up every single day. And it was all Black kids except for the one Mexican kid.

I didn't have a good time, but I could tell over time that they had things going on in their lives… they were going to this school where basically the teachers spent most of the day trying to keep them under control rather than doing any teaching.

And I had gotten into reading about Frederick Douglass and Booker T Washington, a whole lot of Black people, and the different things I saw bothered me even way back then as a kid.

What led you down this path of talking about racism and anti-racism?

When I was employed and now as a consultant, I've seen things and when it has to do with race or sexism I stand up for people. I don't just let things go just because they think I should let them go. I believe that if you have a chance to make a difference you need to at least do something. If you have to say something, then you have to say it.

Despite this, you hesitate to describe yourself as an activist.

I’ve done activism. I wouldn't call myself an activist now. I wouldn't necessarily call myself an activist before but when I saw certain things. I had to act on them.

Tell me how you became a healthcare consultant.

I've been in this kind of work since 1983. I've worked at three different hospitals. And at a certain point I realized that these folks thought I was expendable.

I looked at the numbers. I brought in more money than anyone else. I brought receivables way down. I educated everybody. They gave me the position of corporate compliance officer on top of what I was already doing because I was on a committee to set up leadership programs.

I did all this stuff. And then they decided to merge with this other hospital system. When I asked what I was going to do when they told me my department was moving to another city, they looked at each other and I realized they hadn't thought about me whatsoever

So I decided to go into business for myself. I'm not going to say that it's always been easy because there's only 5500 hospitals in the nation and there's very few Black people in leadership positions. So you have to kind of break through in different ways. I end up talking to people who, it turns out, don't really know how to do their job. You find out that they're in shock that I know more than they do, being Black. I find out that they have few Black employees and they dismiss those employees... until I have time to talk to them and discover that some of them are sharp people. I mention it, but they can't comprehend that because they can't comprehend me.

Have you seen any change in the prevalence of Black people in leadership in your decades in the industry?

I have not seen a whole lot of changes, that's the truth. I think it’s important to have Black people in leadership. Women had to do the same thing - show they were competent [in a world that didn’t believe it], then more women got hired. It’s the same with Black people. You definitely have to go in there and show that you're as qualified as anybody else because that's the only way that some of these other directors and vice presidents will look.

Where do you think we are now in relation to anti-racism?

I think we've gone backwards some definitely since 2015/2016 across the board And look at the January 6, 2021. Look what happened. How many Black people were there? From what I understand you only had one. And when it's all over, they're still blaming Black people for stuff.

In Florida, they don't want those kids knowing that; they don't want diversity, equity and inclusion. They don't want it being taught and they way it's because it makes white kids feel bad. My thought is 'you're educators; it's your job to figure it out'.

It's ridiculous!

Yeah, but that's where we are right now. I mean a lot of universities because of the orange menace and a lot of big companies are ending DEI programmes and eliminating those positions.

Aside from what you've done personally as a consultant, you also have talked a lot about racism and related issues on your blog and YouTube. Care to share a story?

When I started my first blog it was going to be about leadership and healthcare, which led towards talking about diversity. I did a presentation on diversity in New Jersey healthcare.

So there's one woman says:

“I don't think that we have a problem with diversity in New Jersey.”

I said, “Really?”

“We get along with everybody.”

“So let me ask you a question about how many Black people do you think work in your hospital?”

“I don't really know but you see some, right?”

“You’re obviously in here, which means you're a director or supervisor level. How many supervisors do you have who happen to be Black?”

“I think we have one.”

“You have one. I'm sorry, how do you justify that?”

So when you have these kind of things happen in real life then you write about them.

I talk about the situation where I actually put in for a full-time job. And I was perfect for the job. I show up for the interview and this lady calls me in her office. “So you're here for the housekeeping position?”

So I'm with her 30 minutes, then she has to send me to another area of town to meet with the person who I’d report to. so I get this building and they've got a secretary there. I stood at her desk for 10 minutes. A six foot tall Black man waiting. Then she looks and says: “I didn't see you there.” 

How do you not see me?

Yeah, I'm just over five ten myself and I'm familiar with that invisibility that tends to happen in certain places.

So then she called the supervisor. She comes down. I know who this lady is because I was in a healthcare organisation locally and she was part of the organisation. I’d talked to her before. So I mentioned this and she says: “You don't look familiar.” I was only Black person in there. How do I not look familiar? Okay, fine. We go up to her office. The first thing she says is: “Why would you want this job?”

That's a weird question. The interview lasted less than five minutes. And she says: “We have a whole lot of qualified people for this position.”

I'm thinking, “No you don't have a lot of qualified people for this job. I know what this job is; you don't have that.“

Editor’s note: needless to say, Mitch didn’t get that job.

Is there an anti-racism resource that particularly spoke to you written by someone else?

You mean beside your book?

It doesn't have to be my stuff.

Here's the thing. Your book is probably one of the few non-fiction books that I've read over the last few years. And it was awesome stuff and it was very well written, I told you that but tell the world - y'all go buy Sharon's book and it was really impactful and powerful and it was great stuff.

Thanks, Mitch.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Mitch a bit better. You can follow his work on his YouTube channel, blog, and LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

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I am an anti-racism educator and activist, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.

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