Building greater sense of belonging one day at a time

One of the ways in which MHP hopes to make progress on being more welcoming is to have periodic learning experiences in which staff and guest speakers come in during lunch to shed light on racial equity and housing policy issues.

In 2022, the scheduling of one of these events was in and of itself an occasion to learn. Traditionally, called “Brown Bag” lunches, organizers this time were informed that the term the organization had been using for decades to bring people together was in fact hurtful.

In ensuing emails, the MHP staff learned that “the brown bag test” was a discriminatory practice within the African-American community dating back to slavery, when white slave owners assigned lighter skinned enslaved people to work within the homes while relegating darker skinned enslaved people to the fields.

This concept was embraced by some African-American elites and used to exclude darker skinned African-Americans from social, cultural and religious institutions in the Black community after the end of legalized slavery. Brown paper bags were often used at events like college sorority functions to determine whether a person’s skin tone was light enough to enter.

One colleague revealed that when her father brought her mother to meet his family, his sisters (all dark-skinned) rejected her because of her complexion.

The colleague told us: “When my mother was pregnant, my dad’s sisters vowed never to come to the house to see me once I was born, thinking that I would look white. Maybe five years ago, my mother revealed to me that when she gave birth and the nurses showed me to her, she was so relieved that I had warm brown skin like her husband’s family. Can you imagine being pregnant and worrying about the potential skin tone of your baby?”

As a result of this dialogue, meeting organizers changed the name of this long-standing MHP tradition to Lunch & Learns. They then thanked their colleagues for sharing and helping us understand each other better and come closer together.