The ‘twice as good’ rule for Black leaders brings unfair scrutiny to Danielle Outlaw

Solomon Jones | Inquirer.com

In homes that are even the least bit conscious about America’s long history of racial bias, one of many lessons Black parents teach their children is this one: You have to be twice as good to get half as much.

That key verse from what I like to call “The Big Book of Black Home Trainin’” came to mind as I watched twin controversies grip the city over the last few weeks. One scandal involved the Black female police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw, who along with the mayor and other city leaders botched the violent and haphazard response to the George Floyd protests that unfolded in Philadelphia last spring. The other involved Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, a white man whose department is the lead agency responsible for bungling a partnership with an unqualified company that was allowed to vaccinate thousands of Philadelphians against a deadly virus until the city severed that partnership.

In the wake of a scathing city controller’s report that rightly called out city leadership for using tear gas against antiracism protesters, many entities, including the Inquirer editorial board, called for Outlaw to resign.

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