“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

My Racial Awakening

Marc Kermisch
4 min readNov 1, 2020

My journey in learning, listening, and making changes

Back in June, I wrote about the tragic death of George Floyd and the subsequently renewed focus on social injustice in our country. Since June and what I have observed happening in my company and community, I have reflected on my actions and adjusted from running a sprint to pacing for the marathon.

While we have seen so much outpouring of support and Allyship for our brothers and sisters of color, it simply isn’t enough. We have seen more deaths, continued protests, more unrest, lack of action by our elected leaders, and continued deafness to centuries of history that make up the lives of our African American citizens.

When George Floyd died, and I witnessed the anger and frustration of my own community, I felt paralyzed. I realized that I didn’t know enough about the history of systemic racism in our country. I reflected on my circle of friends, and everyone looked like me and came from similar backgrounds. I looked at buying habits, entertainment choices, and reading and realized I had little to no exposure to African American business owners, writers, or artists. I decided to make some changes, most of which were small.

The first was to write about my perspective on George Floyd. The second was to start reading — articles, blogs, and books. The third was to change my news and…

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Marc Kermisch
Marc Kermisch

Written by Marc Kermisch

Technologist | Board Member | Advisor — with 25 years of experience across Retail, Manufacturing, Utilities, Financial Services and Start-ups.

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